bellasworldadventures

[bellasworldadventures]

On Thursday Renee, the Dutch exchange student, and I went to Kawagoe with Naoko's husband. We went to a shrine and got to hang up our wishes and fish for fortunes. After we had lunch at a wedding place cafe. I ate the best chestnut cake roll. It was so good. We also went to the Buddhist temple and got to walk around inside. The WHOLE floor was tatami. I now want my whole house floored with tatami.

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the only form of solidarity in my life is the peace sign i throw up in every single one of my pictures

[bellasworldadventures]

My host family threw me a late welcome party tonight! Kumi-Chan and her two daughters, Rio and Yuka, came plus Yukino's other friend Yukiko and her son, Shunto, and daughter, Miu. Everyone was so enraptured by my English with American accent and made me keep saying several words so they could try and copy it. Those words included carbonara, water, McDonald's, Kentucky fried chicken, Harry Potter, and BigBang. Yuka was taking videos of me saying them to send to her boyfriend and also posted some on her Instagram. Rio and Yuka read through my Japanese comp book and helped me correct some misspellings. They also really enjoyed the dialogues. Especially "the famous dialogue"; everyone in the room got a kick out of that one. I'll have to tell my Japanese teacher. It was super fun and I hope I get to see them all again! Tomorrow Yukino, Kumi-Chan, and I are going to a cat cafe and I'm so excited. たのしみ!!! Also after reading the gokusen dialogue Kumi-Chan said that I could call her Yankumi, since her full name is Yamazuki Kumiko, almost identical to the beloved yakuza heir Yamaguchi Kumiko. I don't know if I'll call her Yankumi but it's fun to know I can.

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Lena didn't have school today so she took me to an arcade and sports complex with her friend Chika! We met up with two of her other friends from school, Hikaru and Kurumi, and hung out for the rest of the time. We played lots of automated sports games like mini bowling and basketball. On the top floor is an outdoor sports center with volleyball, badminton, baseball, tennis, soccer, and basketball. The building had 5 floors in total! I got my first taste of authentic Japanese karaoke too. They all made me sing American songs, Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift, and then we finished with some AAA, Aisheteru. I enjoy Jpop. Very catchy.

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I made French toast this morning for Lena and Kazuma. It is currently 11pm and Kazuma thanked me for breakfast. I feel accomplished.

[bellasworldadventures]

This was from a couple days ago when I went out to sushi with kumi-Chan and Yukino. I don't know if my posts are going up so sorry.

[bellasworldadventures]

Went to Shibuya yesterday! Beef tongue is surprisingly good. I've given up on posting blog like entries.

[bellasworldadventures]

04072016 — Kazo-shi, Japan

(This is my 3rd time writing this as tumblr doesn’t want to save my drafts sorry it’s a day late)

I woke up at about 6am and everyone was surprised at how early I was up. I got to see Lena and Kazuma before they left for school. We ate yakisoba and bread. They all enjoyed the strawberry and rhubarb jam I brought them. Kazuma and Lena left around 7:30 for school. They both take the train to school; Lena is in high school and Kazuma is in university.

After breakfast I put my clothes on and tried to help Yukino with her laundry chores. She told me I didn’t have to follow her around and I could go anywhere I wanted. In my wandering I found there is a toilet upstairs which I was very grateful to find as I won’t have to risk falling down the stairs and dying when I have to pee at 2am. Yukino and I hung out and talked at the table when she was finished with hanging up the laundry outside. I showed her some of the kpop groups I liked as the topic came up with the copious amounts of jpop boy band groups being televised at that time.

We left for the grocery store at about 10:30 and also went inside a clothing shop as Yukino needed to buy Kazuma new jeans. I found several shirts with nonsensical English on them and found it very amusing. She also showed me the yukatas which were very cool. She said the summer festival in Kazo was coming up soon and that’s what everyone wears. I feel like I’d have a difficulty wearing one as I’m too tall for any of the sizes.

After the clothing and grocery store we headed home to eat lunch. Yukino made a type of seafood spaghetti for us both with clam, shrimp, squid, bacon, bell peppers, and mushrooms. It didn’t have any tomato sauce either it was very different from the type is spaghetti I usually eat but it was very good.

Yukino’s friend, Kumiko, came by around 2pm to meet me. She was so excited and happy to see me and called me Bella-chi. She couldn’t speak any English so I had to listen very hard as she spoke so fast (Yukino translated most of it for me but I knew some of what Kumiko was saying). We talked for more than 2 hours about various things like my family and the English language. Kumiko kept saying how she thought Americans were so cool and how she wanted to learn English so she could go. She told me to call her Kumi-Chan and asked if we were friends and I said yes. She was so happy.

At around 5 or 6ish a thunderstorm started. Yukino said that thunderstorms in the evenings were called yuudachi. I fell asleep on the couch while waiting for Kazuma and Lena to come home and when I woke up they were there. Lena was soaked cause she forgot her umbrella and had to walk home in the rain. We ate yakigari, fried ginger and pork, for dinner it was very delicious.

Yukino had to work at around 7:30 so she asked me to meet her student. She’s thirteen years old and has two cats. Haha, that’s what she told me in English. She was also very nervous to meet me, it was cute. During Yukino’s lesson I took a shower and about passed out after when I was sitting at the dinner table. I went to bed around 10pm and was out like a light when my head hit the pillow.

From what I’ve seen the Japanese are very excited to see foreigners.

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03072016 — Kazo-shi, Japan

Arrived at the airport and was picked up by a woman named Naoko and her husband. They took me to shabu shabu and fed me way more than I thought I could eat at that moment in time. Naoko didn’t know much english so I had to rely on my surprisingly useful Japanese skills. I found out that I actually knew quite a bit.

I arrived at my host family’s house at around 10pm and met my family; my host mother, Yukino, her daughter is Lena, 17, and her son Kazuma, 18. I have yet to meet my host father as he is working/living in Kyoto for half the month. Yukino is an English teacher so Im going to be alright communicating. Lena is letting me use her room for the time being and I am very grateful. Lena really likes One Direction and basketball. Actually the whole family really likes basketball so I guess I chose wrong when I got baseball instead of basketball.

They bought me cakes for my birthday and let me choose the flavor first. I chose the matcha cake and it was delicious. Kazuma was happy about it cause he wanted the strawberry cake which I guess he thought I’d take. They sang to me in English and put a candle in my cake. It was cute.

After cake I took a shower and gave everyone their gifts. They enjoyed them all but I’m still disappointed I didn’t get any NBA stuff for them. I showed Lena the map of California and she was really interested in it. I hope she’ll get to come visit me sometime she said she wanted to travel the world. I went to bed around 11pm after I put my clothes in the drawer and settled for bed. I fell asleep really easy I was pooped.

[bellasworldadventures]

My mom told me to make one so here it is.