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This is my third attempt at starting this journal. Each time I tried, I promised myself that I wouldn't just relay events, but sensations and feelings. However, I always ended up just relaying events anyway. I would get as far as my first night here and then stop. Simply relaying events is rather boring, and my attention is easily taken away from the task at hand when bordom takes a hold of me. Never the less, I will try again. Hopefully airing on the side of brevity.
I've decided to put this journal on the web for 2 reasons. First, I want to be able to look at this journal in 20 years and still have it bring me back to this time and place complete with sights, smells, tastes, sounds, and emotions. For this to happen, I must not pull any punches. My mind, body, and soul will be poured onto these pages. If there are those who read these pages and have a problem with its contents, I suggest that you go fuck yourself. This is my adventure, my world, my life, layed out for all to see. Second, I do this so that some may know what I am doing, some may understand me better, and so that some may realize the opportunity of a life-time they missed (you know who you are Melon). Well, having given fair warning to readers, I shall begin anew with this; my journal, my life.
I begin at the airport in Toronto. Any events before this are irrelevent right now, but will be added as events unfold if necessary. After meeting up with the other exchange students and freeing myself of my parents (Jen was actually not being a pain for once...thanx Jen), I got on the plane. The flight: nothing unusual. Movies intersperced with meals, or vice versa, and an hour in the cockpit talking with the pilots. Landing at Narita airport in Tokyo 13 hrs later, my watch (now set to JST) told me that it was 26 hours after I'd left Toronto. After getting through customs side by side with all the other exchange students, I found my self completely alone as the others scattered to meet their host families waiting for them there. Me, I still had to switch airports and get on another flight. I didn't really feel anything right then. I knew that I had to get to Haneda (the other airport).
Bombarded on all sides by signs I couldn't read and people I could ask help from, I started walking through the terminal. I hadn't walked for very far when I saw a sign in English: Information. Relieved that the lady behind the counter spoke English as well, I asked the best way to get to Haneda. 15 minutes later I was on a bus driving through Tokyo. On the bus, there were some other exchange students from the U.S., but unlike me, their Rotary club had arranged for someone to meet them at Narita and take them to Haneda. During the 1.5h hr bus ride, I worked my way through my confused and somewhat angry thoughts as to why my Rotary district had not thought of this (being more experienced in sending students overseas than I). I came to the conclusion that I would put in some sort of suggestion in my first monthly report to my district in Canada. That report, by the way, I will write after I have finished writing this (I have been in Japan for one month and must send one in).
I stuck with the other students when we got to Haneda. Their guide was kind enough to help get me checked in at my airline at the other end of the terminal. The guide, prone to sudden and unexplained disappearances, was no where to be found when time came for me to go through security. It was then that I realized that I didn't even know his name. I asked the other students that were still left at the time and they didn't know either. I never did find out. I got on the plane without ever seeing him again to thank him for helping me out.
Upon landing in Asahikawa, I met my host father, Hide (pronounced - Hee deh...I will be putting in a Japanese pronounciation guide on this website soon). As we left the airport, the sun was setting. This was the first time the sun had set in almost 30 hours for me. It had risen on the way to Toronto. It had been such a clear morning that the sun blinded us as we went. It was as if it were trying to keep us from going to the airport. But, the sun turned into a companion of sorts. Always keeping the sky lit while I made my way halfway around the world.
We, Hide and I along with another Rotary member, drove the hour to Furano (my new home), but instead of going straight to the house, I was taken to a Rotary meeting. Several things about this meeting showed me just how tired I was by that time. First, I said "Yes" to going to the meeting. After 30 hours of sleepless travelling, the last thing one wants to do is go and possibly humiliate themselves or maybe even offend the people who responsible for host you in their country. I guess I didn't do anything wrong, cuz I'm still here. Second, Hide tried to get me to memorize a couple words to say to the members at the meeting. With an hour to do it, one would think that "Kon ban wa, Yorosh(i)ku onegai shimas(u)" would be rather easy, but not for me in my condition. I managed to get it out anyway, but with some difficulty. Third, the following week, there was a picture of me getting a pin from a Rotary member. I honestly can't remember getting that pin.
I awoke after 14 hours of sleep. I met with my teachers that afternoon, my first full day in Japan. I was informed of many things that day. The major thing being that school started the next day! A Saturday of all days!! I was to make a speech in front of the whole school too. Great, knowing no Japanese, I was to tell several hundred Japanese kids about myself? I had Hide help me prepare several sentences in Japanese to say. I went to get my school shoes from this store, but they didn't have any in my size. Luckily my school doesn't have uniforms, so that was one less hassle to deal with. But, I was rather perturbed too. Hide had told me that there were uniforms and I almost didn't pack enough clothes. Athletic wear, or a gym suit (however you want to call it) was also ordered for me that day. It's still not here yet by the way. I'm stuck doing phys ed in the clothes I wear to school.
I walked into the Gym of the school the next day just behind the principal and my English teacher, Kikuchi, with Hide following just behind me. From what I can tell, the gym was dead silent before I went in. As I walked in, ducking my head so I could get through the doorway, I heard a sound that I will never forget; 800-1000 necks turning 800-1000 heads to look at me and then a wave of comments, giggles and stares (Yes, I believe that the countless eyes looking at my 6'4" (193 cm) body with a dark head of hair with blonde tips and blue-grey eyes added to the noise too) rippled across the gym towards me. I broke into a sweat I could feel my face turning red under the weight of those eyes. My speech: if it had been any longer, I might have passes out. Not the best public speaker when speaking English, my hands were shaking uncontrolably while I tried to speak in halted Japanese. After this torture, I was subjected to some more. I was asked to speak in front of my grade. I did. I was then lead to my classroom, where a bunch of girls took pictures of me while I sat there and tried not to look petrified. When asked to speak in front of the class, I said "No". They'd heard me speak in the gym and then in front of the entire second grade (my grade...the equivelent to grade 12) there was no need for them to here me say the same thing 3 times.
Monday, regular school started. I took my seat at the back of the classroom and sat through the classes not understanding a word, looking out the classroom window at the mountains and ski-slopes visible from my seat (I will put a picture of that view up here soon). And so began my Japanese highschool career. Instead of giving a day by day account, which I promised myself I wouldn't do, I'll just give a summary of school life.
First, the basics. I have to be in the classroom at 8:25am for homeroom. The first class starts at 8:40. Each class is 50 minutes long thankfully. That means that I either get a change of scenary, or at least a new face to not pay attention to every hour or so. The students don't change classrooms, for the most part, the teachers are the ones to rotate around. There are 10 minutes between each class and 45 minutes for lunch between 4 and 5 period. With 6 periods in the day, school ends at 3:05. After-school clubs start at 3:40 and end at about 6:00.
School in Japan is like school anywhere in the world. The majority of the students can't wait to graduate and get out. If no teacher is in the room, everybody is walking around and talking with people on the other side of the room. There are teachers everybody hates and teachers everybody likes and those that fall somewhere in the middle. There is a class clown, the brains, the jocks, the kids that play "magic", the popular/pretty girls, the non-so-popular/not-so-pretty girls, and the rest who don't fall into categories (I like to think of myself as one who doesn't fit into any one mold).
That's about where the similarities between Japanese and Canadian students end. One of the major things I've noticed among the students is how much they touch each other. This surprised me. I would've thought that the members of the country that used bowing instead of shaking hands (to avoid physical contact) wouldn't be so touchy feelly. This is common among the guys especially (or maybe their equal among guys and girls, bute I'm not used to seeing guys doing such things). Another thing that shocked me was when the students changed for phys ed. The guys seem to have no problem walking around the classroom without pants on. The girls, most of them anyway, go to the washroom to change, but some change in the classroom too. The students sleep in class too. Little cat naps here and there, but they do it none the less. And the teachers don't really seem to care (Well, my History teacher didn't like it much when I was still asleep (I had decided to get a 5 minute nap between classes) when his class started). I've found a solution to this though. If I want some sleep, I can just "go study Japanese" in a quiet room on the other side of the school. I actually do study Japanese there, but if I'm really tired, I sleep instead.
I should probably add this somewhere, and here is as good a place as any: my school doesn't have uniforms. It's probably one of the only schools in Japan where a uniform isn't required. They must've only gotten rid of them recently because there are still some students who wear one on occasion. There are shoes that nearly every student wears. The colour of the design on the side signifies a person's grade. Blue for grade 1, Green for grade 2 and red for grade 3. My shoes, the ones ordered for me on my first full day in Japan, are white with green on the sides. I am in the second grade, but I am the same age as the grade 3's. So I can't help but feel that I shold have shoes with red on the side instead of green.
Japanese life on the whole isn't all that different from Canada. I get up in the morning and have breakfast; usually eggs or some leftovers for supper the night before. I go to school, bringing my lunch with me; usually rice or a sandwich and some fruit. I make it through school somehow and go out and practise soccer (I'll be going out to practise with the rugby team at least once next week). I come home and eat supper; sometimes western dishes, usually asian though (I'll explain more about the food later). Then I watch TV or surf the net or do something until I go to bed. By go to bed, I mean go to my room and watch TV. There's a TV in my room with 3 sources of TV channels; regular TV brought in on an antenna, something called BS (probably cable), and Direct TV my main source of English TV. I usually watch Direct TV because its got movie channels and a lot of news channels. Finally, I get to sleep way to late. Good thing I can get away with sleeping in class sometimes.
Food here is, well...different. Normally I don't eat seafood when the thing's head is still there. I was eating sashimi (raw seafood) on a trip to a hotspring with Hide and on one of the dishes, there was a whole shrimp. It very nice that they had decided to made the food more decorative, but I couldn't get to most of the stuff underneath because a great big shrimp head was blocking the way. Every one in Japan, it seems, eats rice balls. I would too, there's usully some salmon in the center. It would make a rather healthy snack, but the rice ball is always wrapped in seaweed. I am definately not a fan of seaweed. I've tried it, but it tastes like your eating moldy paper or something. There are some things that I've eaten here that I never would have thought edible in Canada. Octopus is one such thing. It's actually quite good.
I've had to change my ideas of what classifies as entertainment in Japan. I've been to see Star Wars: Episoe 1 already, but I have to take a bus to Asahikawa, an hour away. Even then, movie tickets cost about \1500 (about $20 CDN). I don't think that I'll be going to the movies too often while I'm here. However, Hiro, a friend I've made at school has not seen the Matrix. In fact, the Matrix has just come to Japan. So while it's probably available for rent in Canada, I'll be seeing it in a rather large theatre for the third time in as many cities. There's a bowling alley in Furano and some pool tables too, but not much else other than Karaoke. Karaoke is huge in Japan. I think that's what a lot of kids do for fun.
I haven't been able to do much in the "going out with friends" department because we had exams that started last Thursday and finished on Tuesday. Everybody's been studying like mad for them (Hiro got high marks on most of his but he's not so good in physics). Since I didn't have to write the exams (how would I have read the questions?), Hide and Midori took me to Sapporo from Saturday until yesterday. We dropped of Hide's mother, who'd been staying with us for the past month, at her house in Sapporo. I stayed with one family for 2 nights. They wanted to practise their English on me. Their dog, Mumichi, kept me up all one night by finding a way through the paper walls of my room. The next night I slept in another room (one with solid walls and a wooden door)
While I was in Sapporo, I met some other exchange students from Canada, America, and Australia. I met up with Adam first. He's from up-state New York and we went out for dinner together and talked until he had to go home (exchange students in Sapporo have a 10pm curfew). He gave me the phone numbers for some other exchange sudents and we arranged to meet. The first thing we did was to goto the roof of Mitsu Koshi, a huge department store, so a couple of them could have a smoke. Have I mentioned that smoking is practically a sin if you're a highschool student and even worse if you're a Rotary Exchange student? After that we shot some pool. I warned everybody that I was a pretty crappy pool player, but after a few very lucky shots, they became convinced that I was better than I was letting on. Since the Australians have been here since January, they were pretty fluent. At one point, we were sitting in a McDonald's, when everybody had to go to some Japanese theatre thing somewhere. Everybody except Nina, a fluent Australian. As the girls were walking away (that day, I was with four girls since none of the guys could make it; Adam being at home recovering from a 20 mile walk with his school, and some other guy who nobody could get a hold of), Nina told me that the guys at the table next to us were talking about them.
I could say so much more right now, but there will be time for it later.