Japan Student Exchange Blog

Well, my exchange has now come to an end, so my blog has been moved to http://okaycarey.com . I have kept this blog intact, but all of the posts etc have been migrated to my new blog anyway (this one stops at the end of my exchange, my new one keeps going)

Class Farewell

My homeroom had a class farewell for me on the day before I left Japan. It was on Saturday, after their half day of school. 

I went in to see the board all decorated with my name etc, and food everywhere. 

Class Photo

I went in mufti because my uniform was at dry-cleaning. After a few short introductions from the teachers, we started eating all of the platters of food and pizza which everyone had gone out to collect. 

We played bingo, and each winner got to take a prize until there were none left (I got a cup – yuss). I also won the paper scissors rock tournament, which couldn’t have gone better. My class brought me a music box and put a message on it, as well as a large album of photos and messages from everyone in the class. 

I also had to do a speech which I decided not to write before hand so that it would sound more natural, that went fine. The english teacher also did a speech in English and then translated it into Japanese for the class so they knew what he was saying too. My class really has been nice to me and it kind of sucks that I won’t see them again.

I kind of hung around as people left, until my Host Mum came to pick me up from school. Leaving school for the last time, I decided to leave my school slippers in my shoe locker as a souvenir for anyone who might take them. 

 

School Entrance

That’s the last that I’ll ever see of Miyazaki Nishi-ko ever again.

Last Day of School in Japan

It has finally come and gone. I’m glad it is over in some ways, because the whole farewell thing in Japan has been pretty dragged out (as it is when you leave a country).

I went in to school at 11.55am, as they had tests beforehand. My timing was perfect as always, allowing for 3 minutes preening and reflection checking in the toilets, before the big strut down the hallway where everyone gets to peek out of the classroom windows and catch a glimpse of my figure. I got to my classroom right as the bell ticked over.

My classroom

Everyone was understandably friendly, even more so than usual. I had Japanese class first, and then lunch (including my last bento ever). PE was after lunch, and we played tennis which was really fun. I then went to my last lesson ever – Geography, which is one of my favourites. I understand geography amazingly well compared to my other classes, and these days I can sit a whole lesson without needing to check a word, and participate in class discussions etc. I had to do a speech at the end of the lesson, which was hard because I’ve already done a whole heap (I didn’t want to repeat myself).

My geography teacher gave me the textbook, which I really wanted so it worked out well.

We had class recreation in last period (which was moved to today for me). It was dodgeball, and I showed them how it’s done down-under (is that Australia only? – who knows). I played in barefeet for cat-like speed and reflexes, and I’m paying the toll now because my feet have become so soft here (they always wear shoes here).

My class pulling "West"

After school was finished, I went with my homeroom teacher and said goodbye to all of the teachers. The little 30 second speeches with each teacher are a little awkard, mainly because it’s stuff I have already said to them.

I took a whole lot of photos today, but yall can wait till I get back home for them.

More Karaoke and Fun

Today was the last time that all of the AFS students from Miyazaki got together. I biked into the city to meet Andrea at about 10am, and we then caught the bus to Aeon (the mall). We picked up some bits and bobs (mainly bits) and then went back to the station to meet Mitchell at 11. I brought one of the elementary school caps which is going to be ultra cool back home (yeah right). They’re even reversable, and look really scene. I picked up a bento lunch for $3 from Aeon as well, and thought I might was well go for chicken nanban since I won’t be able to get it much longer (it’s the best thing ever).

We bussed back to the station and met Mitchell (who had started walking to Aeon), and then went to the park for lunch and present time. We had some good old fashioned fun at the park, running around trees and things of the sort (the whole sequence of photos looks the best).

Andrea, Me

Andrea had her school speech at her school, so she had to train back at 1pm. That was the last time that Mitchell will see her for most likely quite some time, but I will still see them both. We took some purikura as well to commemorate the occasion (click the one to the left to see the rest).

Afterwards, Mitchell and myself killed time in the park, and went off to Karaoke later on. It was, well, karaoke. After it was finished, I was running a little late (I was meant to be home by 6.30pm), so I had to walk to the station to pick up my bike. I looked frantically amongst a sea of a few thousand bikes to try and find mine (they all look the same here), and then panic set in when I realized that it wasn’t there. I was sure that I hadn’t parked it in the outside park, so I phoned Mitchell who saved the day. There is two underground bike carparks, and silly old me had just forgotten where I left it.

After wasting 15 minutes looking for my bike, I was late home which I felt really bad about (since it was originally six and I asked to move it to 6.30pm).

Today is my last day of school, and I am going in from 11.50am because they have tests. I’ve almost moved from the sadness of leaving to having accepting it and looking forward to getting back. I packed my bags last night which felt really weird, and it looks like I’m going to make the weight restrictions for luggage (I only get 20kgs!). I’m really glad I sent home that box like a month ago. I’m going to take a bajillion photos today, so hopefully I can find time to put them on my blog before I get back.

Last Full Day of School

As you would have guessed from the title, I had my last full day of school. I thought I’d just put in some photos of school in Japan because there hasn’t really been any up until now.

Yuya, Shogo (Swimming Club) and Me

It was my last Japanese English world history, and mathematics class today, so I took photos with the teachers as well.

Maths Teacher

During long home room, my home room teacher told the class that on my last day (Thursday), instead of some study related assembly, we would be having class recreation because it will be my last period of school (ever). He got the whole thing moved about a month away for me (can’t believe it). This was after my class finished planning my leaving party on Saturday, which everyone is pitching $10 in for.

Mecha Kawaii

My school has been so good to me, I really don’t want to think about leaving (I know I’ve been harping on about this for a while), but it is the same feeling I had before coming to Japan. No matter what you do time will just keep ticking, it is already four days until I leave.

Teacher’s Speech

Today marks the 3rd to last day of school in Japan for me. I had to give the speech to the teachers today, which I think went much better than the student’s speech. It only had to be 2 minutes, so I memorized it which made me a lot less nervous. Once again, after the second line or so, everyone was gasping – even though the intro was stuff that I knew before I came here.

I paused half way through, having to refer to my notes which I was really not wanting to do. After that was finished, I went back to a freezing classroom and sat through one of my last days of school here. 

And just to confirm, like I talked about before, I have secured 20 souvniers – ranging from not so good, to too good to give away. Obviously, I’m not dragging them out at the airport, so it will be the first 20 people to see me once I get home that get them. It is suddenly beginning to dawn on me, that as quickly as I arrived here, I am about to leave. I want to get back, but I don’t want to leave either. Ouch.

Ligers & Handstanding Elephants

I went to the Kinoshita Circus on Monday, where I saw all manner of things.

We originally went to go in at 11am, but it was sold out (on a weekday). So we brought tickets for around $50 a head, and decided to go to the 1:30pm show.

To fill time, we headed to Aeon and I also took out my last pile of cash from 7Eleven (which I can’t do on my Visa card anymore because the machine just spits it out now). After having champon for lunch and picking up a CD, we headed off to the circus.

While lining up, I commented to my host mum how everyone was wearing masks (all of the people behind us in the queue) until I realized that it was a group of disabled people that had come to see the show (ouch).

The circus was amazing, and had that royal British feeling it, and I was half expecting to see a line of cages with “freaks from all four corners of the world”. There was actually everything but.

I took photos, until I was told to stop (it was banned). I got one of the main attraction – ligers. They are a cross breed between a tiger and a lion, and are about twice the size of a tiger (massive). I thought that they were really rare, but obviously these two were born on the road at the circus (is what I’m guessing).

Ligers

How majestic. I don’t know how I feel about them being caged and made to do tricks, but I’m so pleased I saw them.

They also had elephants that could do handstands. I would have loved to have taken a photo, but I was told off for taking them right before the elephants came out. It was pretty funny, they were practically breakdancing.

In other news, a friend of mine has sourced some whale meat for me. Most people here don’t eat it and it is a little hard to get, but I’ll be blogging all about it when I finally get to eat it. I’m not saying that I support whaling or anything, but it’s already dead.

Farewell Speech

Given two days warning, I was told that I had to give a speech at the school assembly in the gym this Thursday.

I took advantage of the time that I have in Maths and Japanese class to write it, as it had to be from five minutes to ten minutes. I normally don’t get really worked up about talking in front of crowds, but when you are the only one that speaks a different language to a crowd of hundreds, it is pretty mortifying I must say. As much as I am usually against it, and given the timeframe, I decided that it would be best to read as opposed to memorize and playing the cue-cards game.

Luckly, I got to go at the start of the assembly, so I wasn’t waiting around for ages. I was asked to say it in English as well, but the English half was really, really bad. This is partly because I find it really hard to write about anything terribly dramitic in English now (because I’m not in that mindset at the moment), and partly because my speech has a very Japanese feeling to it which sounds odd when put directly into English. So, I just winged it through the first half (which was English), which was fine because they wouldn’t have got any of it. Up until switching to Japanese, I was cool as a cucumber. Once I started reading the Japanese part, I got really nervous and it was hard to talk. After the second sentence, all I could hear was “suge” being whispered all over the hall (it means amazing in case you were wondering – how embarassing…)

I finished my speech, and took a bow (which is interpreted as humility in Japan, and ego in the West) and turned around to see the shock on the teachers faces. I think most teachers think that I understand really little Japanese; one asked me the other day how high I could count in Japanese…

I’ve posted the script below, with some kanji omitted for readibilty on my part. Overall, it was well received (with gasps and all), now I only have the teachers speech to do…

私は８月に日本に来たということは、今まで５ヶ月ぐらい日本に住んでいます。その時間で学んだことを言葉で説明することはむずかしいと思いますが

西高にいる間に私の留学経験は私にとって忘れがたい思い出になりました。西高で知り合ったみんなさんのおかげでこの学校を通して色々なことを学びました。つまり、先生がたは必ず私がよく分かるように教えてくださり、学生のみなさんもいつも助けてくれました。初めはどんな学校かと心配していましたが、みんなさんは私にとってもよくしてくださり、私の日本での生活はとても楽しいものになりました。

西高に来ていろいろな経験が出来ました。まず、うんどうかいや文化さいや水泳部やマラソンで走ったことなどいろいろな経験をしました。

私のクラス２年７組はとてもフレンドリーであり私をすぐにクラスのメンバーとしてうけいれてくれました。さいしょの出会いからきんちょうすることなく、すぐにとけこむことができ、今は２年の７組の皆のおかげで日本の学校生活を楽しく　すごす　ことが出来たことをうれしく思います。

特に川端先生は言葉が分からない私に分かりやすい言葉で説明してくださり学校のことをくわしく教えてくださいました。私が勉強していた科目の先生方もお世話になりました。ありがとうございました。

私が日本に来る前の日本へのイメージは　礼儀正しい人々、うつくしい場所、美味しい食べ物でした。宮崎に来て経験したじんむさま祭り、花火大会、さいとこふん祭り、山のこうよう、日本の正月など日本は私がイメージしていた通りすばらしい所でした。

この学校に来てからつらいことが一つだけです。ただ、皆さんと分かれることだけです。なぜなら、いつでも　どこでも　この学校の学生はこえをかけてくれたり、いろいろなことを教えてくれました。

日本のしゅうかんや文化により私の考え方がかわてきたをじっかんしています。ニュージーランドに帰ってからも日本でのかんどうをいつまでも忘れません。

Last AFS Meeting & Karaoke

We had our last AFS meeting on Saturday, speeches and all. I couldn’t really be bothered getting my act together in time to write a speech, so I scribbled down a few ideas in the car.

I ended up reading my speech, partly because I didn’t want to forget anything, and partly because I didn’t want to get anything wrong. There was the small talk afterward and lots of nice food.

Jessa (not AFS ha ha), Mitchell, Andrea and Me

Afterward, we went to the Urban Square game center, where Andrea and Jessa battled it off on dance dance revolution.  Having inhaled about my fill of second hand smoke at the arcade, we ran off to karaoke. It was really fun, except the song “Home” by Shota Shimizu. It’s all sad ha ha. I put up a video even though its really sucky.

After karaoke, I did a little shopping and met up with my host family in the city for dinner later in the night.

I have 12 days left in Japan, and I don’t want to leave. Oh, and a note re:souviners. I have brought 20 souviners, and so the first 20 people to see me once I get back get them. I still have to work out the details, but I thought I’d let you know.

Farewell Sannensei

In Japan, entrance to university is harder than the work that you do once you get there. All across the nation, students in Japan are preparing for their university entrance examinations, and today they went off to their first practice.

The whole school filed along the pavement as the ten buses of 3rd year students drove to their fate. Two of the kids from my class were involved in the Japanese taiko drum playing which were played next to the school entrance, adding to the atmosphere.

We were instructed to wave, and wave properly. As we were doing the big send off, one of the students had drawn a sign saying “Yes we can!”. This has become a real catch phrase, and was picked up in Japan from Obama’s campaign this year (along with “Change!”)

We finished school at 2pm today which was amazing. I’ve got my AFS farewell meeting tomorrow, and I was hoping to have written a speech for it, but at this stage it looks like I’m going to just wing it. She’ll be right mate.