冬です。

冬休みは２００９年１２月２４日から２０１０年１月５日まででした。

１２月２４日はクリスマスイブでした。

クリスマスイブから熊本のホテル日航に泊まりました。

そのホテルは大きくて１４階(かい)建てホテルです。とてもきれいでした。友達のによると、ホテル日航は一番豪華(ごうか)なホテルだということです。私たちが大きいベッドに寝れたのはホテルに泊まったからです。クリスマスイブはホテルにチェックインしたり、ランチを食べり、お風呂に入ったり、教会に行ったり、飲み会をしました。教会ではクリステインとアレクサといっしょに「Go Tell it On the Mountain」の歌を歌いました。あたしはちょっと恥ずかしかったけど大丈夫でした。

次の日はクリスマスでした。起きてすぐに、コーヒーを飲みました。それから、家族と友達にもらったプレゼントを受け取りました。とても楽しかったです。クリスマスの日の夜も飲み会をしました。１２月２６日にホテルをチェックアウトしました。残念でした。

１２月２７日は早起きなければならないもちつきをするために下田の家族の家に行きました.

私とカーリーは電車でたまなに行ってきました。

その日も楽しかったです。

もう一回いきたいです！５００もちぐらい使いました。

時々餡こに入れました。

もちつきをし方はちょっと難しかったですけど練習したら上手になりました。もちつきをすることはお正月の伝統的な習慣です。

１２月２９日アイススケートをする、ビルとたかこさんといっしょうに行きました。ビルはとても上手でした。始期のときは私とたかこさんが何度も落ちました。痛かったです。アイスリンクでたくさん家族にいました。

冬休みはとてもたのしかったです。

Face for the Radio

My blog post titles are the song that I'm listening to currently, makes it a bit interesting (or not, I dunno).

Typhoon Melor missed us, which was good news for us. As exciting as I think it could have been, I wasn't looking forward to it. I don't like rain at the best of times, and I'm from England, it always rains!

I'm excited for the weekend, I'll finally get to go to Kumamoto Castle! Woop. We're going there before Yuki and Tomoko's graduation party starts, there is a festival there, and it'll be dark so all lit up! Excellent news! Then Sunday it's "Japanese Society in Kumamoto", which is just more drinking and having fun. :D.

I won't lie - I miss home a little bit this week. my Skype has been out of action, and that is the only way that I can speak to my friends (properly) so I've kinda been cut off. It was my friend Natalie's birthday this week too, and my brothers, and it's my Dad's next week, and my friend Joanne's the week after, so I guess I just feel a bit left out, I know there'll be festivities and I'm 6000 miles and 8 hours away. I'm not complaining, I (obviously) love Japan and everything about it. I particularly like classes. Not only cause I seem to be doing a lot better here than at home, but because they are just brilliant, I am switched on for an hour and a half, and I learn stuff! Japan is making me more efficient! I'm enjoying really noticing my Japanese get better.

I'd like to make a comment about how frustrating Japanese keyboards are! Tiny delete buttons (Japanese get everything right first time, I know, I know) Tiny space bars, @ keys in the wrong place, 15 million types of maru! Muzukashiiiidesuyo. Rant over.

My Mom sent more Wispa Golds, which is EXCELLENT. Yuuum! They are just delightful. Such a treat. Mom's are great, in general. My homestay Mom, Misa's Mom, was excellent, even though I couldn't speak much to her - she was so nice and welcoming to me! I can't wait to see Misa's family again.

Which reminds me, this week was the first time EVER in my long 4 weeks in Japan, that I've encountered bad customer service. Everyone is so helpful here and polite and in desperate need to help you in whatever you need, whether they can speak English or not, they will be patient with your Japanese and you can get across what you need to get across in a mixture of Japanese and Engrish. I'm so appreciative of this. I know that it wouldn't happen in England. Waiters/shop assistants/receptionists would not be patient with the majority of foreigners. I know, though, that British people kinda expect everyone to speak English, and we shouldn't, it's a big problem, but one everyone is guilty of, including me.

I think that's all I've got for tonight.

Here's another post secret card that I love.

二つ目に行った神社

１０月

もう１０月です!　びっくりしています! 日本に住んで、一ヶ月が経ちました。熊本が大好きです!　

今日神社に参拝してcomputers and englishの学生といっしょにごはんを食べました。　そして二つめの神社に参拝しました。　最初の神社はとてもきれいでした!　この神社のかみは牛追いの神です。このじんじゃは辻占を買うところです。 私のおみくじのなかには二つ小さい金神が入っていました。財布にいれておくと、お金持ちになります。お金持ちになりたいです！  つぎの神社は一つ目の神社と近いです。このじんじゃもきれいでみその神が住んでいます。

後で昼ご飯を食べました。よしのとカーリーとゆきと一緒でした。Ouchi Cafeに行きました。とてもおいしかったです！野菜のカレーを食べました。楽しかったです！

FanMail.

Aha! Comments are working again. Excellent news! Thanks Kirk!

Comments please!

So - here's my "assignment 1" post:
Hello! My name is Vikki. I'm an exchange student from England. I study at Liverpool John Moores University, in Liverpool, but I'm originally from Birmingham, which is in the middle of England. I'm 21. I study Japanese and international business. I'll be in Kumamoto until next summer, and I love Kumamoto! It's beautiful. Although, I've not been to the castle yet - somebody take me please? I get in free because I'm a gaijin, so I'd be no trouble at all. :D My favourite food ever is mashed potato, but my favourite Japanese food is okonomiyaki. My favourite colour is orange and my favourite band ever is Blink 182. Okay. boring stuff over.

In regards to what my feelings are about being stared at when I'm out and about in town - I'm not really sure. I think it depends on my mood. If I'm not in a particularly friendly mood (it doesn't happen often, I promise) then I don't like it, but I have to admit that it's very weird being in the minority. Kinda refreshing! Sometimes it's awesome, like when we went with Toby to get his hair cut and they wanted to take all of our photo's to put on their website because they had never cut a foreigns person's hair before! I liked that. Mainly because it's like being famous and, well, who wouldn't like that!

What I would like is the name of a hairdresser who can make my (rare) blonde locks blonde again in a few weeks, we all know how having roots makes me feel ill and highly paranoid.

I've been in Japan for a month as of Wednesday and it's absolutely flown by! I can't believe it. It kinda scares me because I don't want the whole year to go that quick - but I know it will. Inevitable, ne?

There's so much I wanna do whilst I'm here. The next few weeks are busy, Yuki and Tomoko's graduation party, Japanese society in Kumamoto, English weekend, a trip to Fukuoka, hopefully the Masden class trip to Nagasaki, Clare's visit. I'm so excited. Life is excellent right now.

I think that what I can't get my head around, though, in regard to uni and the classes, is why everyone has the same lunch time. I just don't understand. It seems to me like the least efficient thing to do, making all the eaterys on campus super busy....

Right now, I can't think of anything that I really find odd/different/crazy about Japan. I note things, but then forget them. But I'm going to try harder to write them down and write about them! Excellent.

For now - here's my favourite Postsecret postcard of the week.

If you've not seen Postsecret, it's a project where people from all over the world send postcards with their secrets on to one man in America. Some of them are amazing.


http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

Go! Go! Go!

First Japanese post!

これは私始めての日本語ブログ!　こわい!　

今は明日のテストだから、漢字と語彙を勉強しています。　ちょうつまらないです。

今晩は、カーリーとyayoikenに行った。　このレストランはしゅうへいのアルバイト所です。　

今週末英米学科の学生と一緒 カラオケに行くつもりです。楽しみ。

最近雨がいつも降ります!　でも、雨がふるとかみがまとまらないから好きじゃありません。

The weekend.

Hi! So first of all. I've disabled comments on my blog, because, for some reason, they weren't working anyway. Lame.

So, this past weekend was so much fun. Saturday was our official KGU welcome party. So, we got ready on Saturday morning and nervously went down stairs - it was held here at the dorm. We'd also heard that we had to talk about ourselves, so we were equally nervous about that. The room had been decorated with flags and banners saying welcome, etc.. and it looked awesome. There was SO much food (if you didn't live here, it cost 500yen to get in, so that's how the food got paid for. Ash (who is an Australian guy who's been here since March) was MC and introduced us all one by one and we then introduced ourselves. It was horribly scary but not as bad as anyone thought. Then there was a speech from the manager of the International Office which was totally sweet - he was so nervous - but he told stories about each of the countries we'd all come from and told us we were his family now. Then we ate. Us exchange students were like celebrities, so many photos and people wanting to meet us. Spoke Japanese as much as possible - it was so tiring. About 5pm, most people had left, and we'd decided we wanted to go out. So we did.
Cabbages and Condoms (Thai Resturant) > Jeff's Bar > Karaoke > Bed at 5.30am. It was probably the best night since I've been in Japan.

Yesterday was pretty much a right off. Woke up super late. Went to Jolly Pasta. Watched The Mummy 2, which was the worst thing I've ever seen and 2 hours of my life that I'll never get back. Came to bed and downloaded Cruel Intentions, which just get's better everytime I see it, even though I can quote probably the whole script.

I'm just getting ready to go to class. 1pm-4pm. Looong. Not as bad a Thursdays though. Just two Japanese lessons today. No kanji. Life is good. This afternoon we're going to the gym. I'm excited about it pretty much because I wanna listen to my iPod. Now that Spotify has been ripped away from me, I need to get properly re-aquainted with it.

Also - I love how it is autosaving my post every minute. It's the best thing I've ever seen. I noticed that gmail does it too. Don't get that on Hotmail, no sir. Superior.

That was just about my weekend. I don't really have any observations about Japan today. I am excited to get into a routine though. Start living a real life. I'm hoping, if I can get in touch with someone, that I might be able to borrow a flute (or a saxophone, so if anyone knows of one available in Kumamoto...get in touch) from somewhere and join the orchestra. I am desperate for my Japanese to get better, quicker. So, I figured - music is the same in any language, but the people there won't be able to speak Japanese. So I'm hoping to get involved.

I'm signing off. I've been up since 7 and I'm tired, and uninteresting. Hopefully my next post will be in Japanese. Excellent.

purikura from the phone

I just learnt to send this off my mobile phone, so  I did. It was taken at the weekend, on my homestay with Misa and the Matsumotos.

In class

Hi. I'm currently in class writing this in to my new blog. I'm tired and don't want to go to the next class.