Sorry!

Sorry! Sorry to everybody who used to read my blog or just check it sometimes. I have been really busy and completely forgot about it. It is not really easy to keep a blog. So this last month a lot of things have happened. I am studying Japanese really hard especially kanjis which I do not remember really easily to be honest and practising a lot of grammar. And the speaking part actually is going really well since as you know (or might know) my HF does not speak English, so now I am happy that we can understand each other without dictionary. School is OK too, I have friends, we sometimes go out ( actually it happened only a few times) they are so so soooo busy. So beside the normal usual things of student life there are a lot of cool things which happen to me almost everyday. I am learning a lot of new things about japanese culture . My host grandma is teaching me how to make tanka (japanese poem) then a neighbor is teaching me origami, on TV the 90 percent of the movies are japanies(actually till now the only foreign movie that I have seen is James bond, in japanese of course). Christmas is coming and the city seems more christian than Europe. The main streets have lights everywhere, Xmas songs everywhere, big Xmas trees in all shopping centers, parks etc. There is no snow but it is really nice. We are expecting snow for Xmas,which I m waiting for since long ago. In school we are going to have a big Christmas worship where Im going to sing with my classmates Hallelujah. On the 22nd the Xmas holiday starts. I will have more free time then,so will post a long looong posts with more details. For now that is all. Have really nice day. Bye bye

routine

HI!! Month and a half of my life here is gone, and I can`t believe how fast everything have been going on. But now, things go slower, and actually I am glad it is on this way. I have started to worry about how fast my experience was going, and if I was going to have time to do and learn everything I want, but now I think there is a lot of time. My routine has started, I go to school 6 days a week,I have my Japanese teachers who come 3 times a week to teach me some kanjis and grammar, I have joined the volleyball club ( but I have not been practising because they have important games this month so they are busy). Weekends are pretty cool here,since there are a lot of things to do and a lot of places to visit. Now I am in the school library,writing this post, because my classmates have world history which I don not understand :) So today I decided to write about some "different" habbits that they have in Japan. 1. When you go shopping and you want to try some clothes,there are 2 things you should do before: put some kind of bag on your head and put off your shoes (both for hygyene reasons). 2.When you go to public bath with termal water, NEVER go in the bath with the towel, you should go NAKED :) 3.Be sure you do NOT live any rubbish ANYWHERE! Japan is so clean, it is so beautiful.You can not see　　any rubish on the floor, and any dustbins too.They just keep everything in their pockets till they get home. 4.Some japanese schools do NOT allow their students to wear tights in winter,even it is snowing.SO girls go with their legs naked and the school uniform skirt. 5.Japanese girls are really into fashion, and it is really difficult to see some japanese girl with jeans on the street.All of them wear skirts or shorts with long socks. In winter the same, but they don`t care a lot. 6.It is unpolite to blow your nose in public, even there are some people who does it. 7.Japanese men bring the money at home,even most women have job,their salaries are lower. This is changing now,but it takes its time. 8."Ofro" is really important part of the japanese culture.Everyday after work or job, people fill their baths, and everybody has a rest. The strage thing is that everybody uses the same water,but before using the bath,they have a really good shower so they are very clean when they go in. 9.JAPANESE TOILETS AND BATHS! I completely love them. The toilet has a lot of things,it can clean your ass,xD turn hot the seat,etc The bath is more complicated: you can determinate the degrees of the water, you can turn hot the water wchich is in the bath, you ca use the phone( actually I did that without knowing,hah I called to the kitchen phone) and some other things that I do not understand(everything is in kanji). 10.It is extremely difficult to know what a japanese person is thinking or feeling. They are like stones. My hostmum told me,the people of my prefecture does not show they feeling almost never,but that in other prefectures like Hokkaido or Osaka they do cry or laught. But here they just smile. In my home is a little bit different because my host mum is from Hokkaido so she does laught, but for example my grand mum is always smiling and it is just impossible to know what she feels. Right now there are no more things in my head to say. I hope people who reads this ( my mum, grandad, friends,etc) enjoys it and does not worry a lot about me. I know I am so far ,but I am OK :))

Freedom

Hi everybody! Today I am going to speak about Japanese teenagers. Actually about their lifestyle. So Japanese high school students are treated like little children even they are 16,17,18 even 19. Actually from what my host family told me till their 20 they are told what to do.When to study,to eat, to clean, to go out, where to go, when to have a shower,everything,just like 7,8 years old children. But actually most of the high school students behave like they are 11 or 12 years old,so maybe this is why they are told what to do. Most of my host family's friends are surprised how could my natural family let me go to the other side of the world,and most of them are surprised of how mature and adult I am, that I behave like a 20 years old Japanese girl. So all my family thinks I am really mature and so....but they do not bring it to practice, they just treat me like 16 years old Japanese girl... for girl coming from Europe and that had been treated like an adult,having her own choices and building her life, is pretty difficult to get used to behave like 11 years old girl,and to have the same freedom like one at that age. Actually I think this is one of the most difficult things to get used to. In Europe high school students are responsible for their actions and here if you do something wrong, your parents are the ones that have to apologize,like you are not too mature and grown up to know what you have to do,and you do not realise that you have done a mistake. Parents just tell almost everything like, put on the light when you read, or use a futon is cold, or put another jacket its cold, or wash your obento box ( and most of the times they say things like this to me I have already done it ) so they are surprised how did I do it by myself. So that is all, just wanted to share..... Have a nice day :)

...

Hi everybody :) Well I am in Japan since 1 month and almost 10 days. This time just went so so fast. It seems like a week to me. Maybe because I had too many things to do, maybe because everything was different( and it is still different)but this 40 days were really important for me! I have learned a lot of things since I am here. Like I said everything is really different and everyday, I learn something new about Japan, its culture and people.I can say my Japanese is getting better, since my host family does not speak English, so all our comunication depends of my Japanese skills and an electronic dictionary. School is OK, classmates are really nice ( communication so so,no English or only a little bit). Last week they had their terminal exams so I was given a holiday :) I had 10 days holiday,which is pretty cool,since I had to rest all the excitement and change made me reaaly tired,and to visit a lot of things. So during my holiday I studied kanjis, read some English books which i got at the prefecture library(the biggest one ) helped my hostmum a LOT, cooked "tortilla" for my HF,listened to music,went out,had an AFS orientation, spent some time with my host grandma, and slept( in Spain I would not say that I have slept because there I used to sleep till 11,12 am and here if I sleep till 9 I am the happiest person on the world).This last days the weather is rare, we had a typhoon (its name was Jalewat) when it arrived my city it was 3 am so I was sleeping,but when it arrived sleeping finished!!! It was raining and raining without stopping and wind was reealllyy strong, so you can imagine that I spent a couple of hours laying in my bed. I had gone to bed at 7 pm that day(which is really early) because I had spent the day helping my host mum at the seaside. She supports the volunteers who help to clean the seaside after the tsunami,so we cooked and cleaned.It was a really good experience, I had the opportunity to heard about the tsunami,they told all that happened,and after that I spoke with my host family who explained me how they lived the tsunami. I was listening and could not imagine what they had lived.Here goes a little bit of what they told me: All my family was at home, my host mum,dad,grandma and sister. My host mum was at the second floor,cooking,when everything started to shake.She ran under the table, and everything fall down, forn,pictures, frige,everything! When it stopped( it was about 5 minutes) she ran down stairs where the rest of my host family was. It was cold,March. They turned off the gas stoove and went out,like the rest of the neighboors did. They had no electricity, no water,no gas, and outside was really cold. More and more earthquakes happened,hundreds of them, some even more than 7,5 in the Richter scale. So my host mum and dad decided to sleep in their cars,where it was more safe and hot, but my host sister and grandma decided to stay in the house. From the radio they knew that a tsunami was coming but nobody was nervous,they have had tsunamis before,but only a few centimeters or a meter.Nobody expected that a huge tsunami was coming. Soon the news arrived and everybody was shoked. Volunteers from all over the world came, in my neighboorhood they were from America.My host mum showed me the blankets they gave them. She explained me they gave them food(easy to cook) blankets water,etc.After the house passed the revision and they said it is OK ,no danger to live in, they were less worried. Then my host mum have given more than the half of her kimonos to sell, to win money for the people who lost their houses. She really helped a lot,and still doing it. I am really happy to be in this city,with this people and this Host Family . Thank you for reading Have a nice day :)

Bday :)

Hi everyone :) I want to tell you about my Birthday. It was last Monday... My hostmum told me she is going to make a chocolate cake ( she knows I love Chocolate) for my Birthday,so the day before we went to buy all the ingredients and so... So on Monday morning I got up and my hostmum took me to the shopping center with my hostgrandmum to choose what I want for my Birthday, and to buy a present for my hostgrandmum, because the same day was Old aged day. So we went to a shopping center(huge shopping center, they are like 5,6,7,8,till 10 floors. And I bought 3 pairs of long socks( here in Japan almost everybody wears long socks and they are crazy about socks)a one piece and a pair of shorts.My hostmum bought shoes for my host grandma and we went back home. I helped my Okaasan doing the cake and some friends of her came. They gave me presents such as CHOCOLATe,mhm CHOCOLATE, let me think ...CHOCOLATE yeahh this is why I am 2 kg more since I am here.I received a box with towells too( here they use them a lot, it is toooooo hot).My Okaasan friends play a lot of instruments so they played Happy Birthday for me(saxo,piano and other strange instrument that I had never seen before). In the afternoon my Otousan came back home, so we ate cake again and he gave me a soo　nice present, all the CDs of Koda Kumi!!!!!! It was really nice.I skyped with my natural family ,too. So now I am still eating my Bday presents and I try to do some exercise,because I do not want to get fat,hah Yesterday school started(we had 2 days off) and some of my classmates gave me more presents, and I could not believe it.... I am writing down all their Bdays so I can give them something for theirs... Well tomorrow the terminal exams start,but I do not have to do them, so my school responsible told me I can have some holidays,because these 4 days school will be only till lunch time,and all they will do is EXAMS, so I can stay home and study Japanese.But there are 4 days holiday for the other students so, I will have like 10 days holiday,wich is pretty cool, I have a lot of things to do,study,visit,and rest( I am so tired). Well that is all people Have a nice day

Happy

Hi everyone! A lot of things happened these last days. Starting from last week, I visited the Sendai castle with my host family. It was really nice, there was an English guide too, who explained me a lot of things about the castle , that is not actually there because they destroyed it. I took a lot of pics with ninjas and other japanese folks and everybody asked me where I am from and tryed to speak with me. Then we went to the Shrine and I made a wish and wrote down a wish on a wood piece. I ate "zdunda" and I still do not know what it is but it was delicious. On Sunday I went to the Jazz Festival of my city, and it seems it is the biggest Jazz festival in Japan, there were like 700 bands playing it was really cool. Now comes the funny one. Last week I asked my mum if there is an Onsen near our home, and she told me that yes and that she would bring me there someday, but it resulted that both my hostdad and my hostmum love Onsen so yestarday we went. First we went in like 4 or 5 different "saunas" with stones and we swear and swear ahah, then we went in in one that had a temperature of 95 degrees!!! I could not stay there for more than 4 minutes. And after that we put off our clothes and went to have a shower and then to the baths! Everybody was "hadaka" ( naked) and there were like small pools with different types of water and it was really cool, we spent 3 hours there and I really liked it, even in the beggining I was really shy and it took me like 20 minutes to put my clothes off, but it was worthy.My Bday is next Monday there is no school,and my classmates were so cute,nice and sweet to me,they brought a present for me to school and wrote a so sweet Birthday card,that I started to cry when I read it. I can not believe that in 2 weeks,we have become so good friends.They bought for me a big bag with sweets, a very cool scarf and things for my hair. I am really happy with them and i wannt to tell them a big THANK YOU for everything.Then I would like to say Thank you to my Italian friend who had been with me these few weeks in Japan and I would like to tell her that I hope wee will keep in touch after our year in Japan.I want to say a HUGE thank you to my host family,because they are really nice to me and they are making my experience unforgettable, and finally an enormous thank you to AFS for making this possible.

First days in Japan

Hello! I am in Japan since exactly 10 days,and so much things have happened. Well starting from the begining.After a long long flight ,actually 2 flights but the firts one was only 2 hours, I arrived to Narita Airport the last friday (24th). Everthing was Ok, but my luggage was lost, so i spoke with a really nice staff,and they told me my luggage will arrive to my hotel the next day. So all of us went to our hotel.We had 2 days orientation wth other students from all over the world and then, everybody departured to his destination,in my case ,Miyagi. My host family was waiting for me on the train station with my LP. Both my host family and my LP are really really nice. They do their best to help me, but as you can imagine Japanese culture is so different, it costs a little bit to get used to a lot of things. Well, after that,I visited my host school, it is one of the best schools in the region and everybody is very nice, all my classmaes are reall kind and they try to help me with everything. I have gone to school 3 days,and those 3 days was the school festival, and it was pretty cool,there were dancers,singers, shops with handmade things,and all the money they win they give it to an organisation from Africa. My Japanese sucks, and next month we have a lot of exams, like Japanese classics, Maths, World histoy,etc in japanese, so i have to study really hard, and learn a lot of kanjis,I hope my Japanese gets better next months. Have a nice day BYE BYE

time goes so fast

Time goes fast, and there are only 11 days to the gateway orientation. I just received a letter from AFS, and they told me I have my VISA! Just 3 or 4 days ago I received my school sheet too. I'll go to a girls only private school. Visited the school page and it´s pretty cool. Has a lots of clubs( sports, dance, martial arts, japanese culture,etc).  Now everything is ready: the visa,the flight, the school,the family,etc.  Soon I'll have to say goodbye to all my friends and family, it will be a little bit hard, but this have been my goal and dream for a lot of time. I am really  happy for being able to have this experience, and to live in this wonderful country, all the things I have heard about it, are  so amazing. I'm really excited and nervous and I hope everything will be  OK .
  When I get to Japan ,I will post again the soonest possible.
Thank you for reading :)

COUNTDOWN CLOCK WIDGET

10761 km away

How did I get this opportunity? In this post I will explain you the way I did.
Like I have posted before, I LOVE travelling and meeting people. I have visited several countries but I have always wanted to involve me in the everyday life of other country. I wanted to change, to have  new experiences and learn about other culture. I started searching programs but it was a hard work. Finally, almost a year later I found a program called AFS. Without thinking twice I called them and asked them about their program in Japan. They were really friendly and explained me everything. I did all the things they asked me to, I sent the documents and all the required stuff, and finally  I went to an interview. Then the waiting started, I checked my mail everyday waiting for an e-mail from AFS. And  2 months later I received a packet in my house. Yes, I had won the scholarship. This was one of the best days in my life, I started crying and shouting around the house.
They sent me a lot of information about my country, safety tips and a japanese language book(honestly I needed it). Then I received the information about  my host family. They are so cute and friendly, I have an older sister but she won´t live in the same house. They have a dog too, and this makes me happy, I love dogs, cats, and all the animals that exist on this planet. And at last they sent me the departure information. I take off the 23th of August, from Madrid. I have a really long flight, first I fly to London and then I have a non-stop flight to Tokio( 13 hours).

And after all this time , soon my dream will come true and I'll wake up everyday in the country of the rising sun 10761 km away from here.

Hi everybody. My name is Tanya, I'm a high school student from Valencia, Spain. I love travelling and meeting people from all over the world so I take advantage of every opportunity I have. I have always wanted to study in a foreign country , it have been my dream for a lots of years. Well a year ago I found a program called AFS ,that made my dream  come true. I am going to live and study for a year in Sendai, Japan. I'm going to live in a japanese host family and study in a japanese school. I'm sure it will be an unforgettable experience and I hope you enjoy my posts. If you have any questions, just ask me.