Finally an Update

Hi Everyone,

Sorry I haven't updated in so long, been busy with school, preparations for my upcoming school trip, and other ongoings in Japan. It's starting to cool down here as fall heads in, and the leaves are just beginning to change colour. According to my teachers, in a few weeks the colours should be brilliant.   School is going well, and my conversational Japanese is getting better and better. I'm beginning to make more friends at school and doing more things outside of school with my classmates.  For example, purikura, a type of Japanese photo booth I mentioned in an earlier post. Here are a few of the pictures:

from left to right: Yuuka, me and Akina

I also recently celebrated my birthday in Japan, making me seventeen years old. It was my first birthday away from my family, so the day started off emotional and gave me my first real bout of homesickness. However, my classmates were able to cure that with their gifts and their hugs, making me feel like I'm really a part of the 5C family. My homeroom and the other girls at school have just been amazingly welcoming and really make me feel like I belong. I couldn't be more grateful to them and my host family. Me and my host family celebrated at night with Ramen and Jingisukan (two of my favourite Japanese dishes) for dinner, and then delicious cake. It was a birthday dinner unlike anything I've had in Canada, but it was a lot of fun and certainly memorable.

Jingisukan, a famous Hokkaido dish

And chocolate cake, yum!

Last weekend, we had another gathering of the rotary exchange students, at which we went and sang karaoke and then had dinner. We got to meet D2510's outbound students who are heading off to various clubs in Canada and Australia next year. They were all great to talk to and I couldn't be more excited for them. It doesn't actually seem like that long ago that I was waiting to learn where in Japan I was going, almost hard to believe I've been here almost two months! I've also been spending some more time outside of school with the inbounds, great people and I love hanging out with them. 

As of late, I've been sorting out preparations for my school trip which leaves the morning of Monday the 22nd (still saturday night for most of you reading this in Canada). We'll be visiting four cities: Kyoto, one of Japan's oldest and most historical cities, known for it's temples, shiners and castles. Osaka, which is one of Japan's economic centres and according to my classmates, has awesome food. Nara, which has some famous Japanese landmarks and tame deer wandering around town. And Hiroshima, where we will be visiting the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. My class is also making one thousand paper cranes for the occasion. Over all, I think it will be a great trip and I'm super excited! 

Still loving Japan and I'll try to update sooner next time! Thanks for reading and putting up with the delay!