#29 Handa High School

For the past two weeks I have been attending Handa High School. Handa KoKo is the best high school in the city. It is a private school you go to if you want to get into the good universities. Apparently they have the best basketball team too… Honestly, I was a little intimidated.

This is my uniform. (Yes uniform!)

My first day was… shocking. I think that’s the best word to describe it.

First of all, for my very first day I would be joining basketto bukatsu’s (basketball club) morning practice. It started at 7:00. My host dad and I left at preciously 6:50. *Every day after this I walk to and from school and because it was up and down many many hills it usually took me 25 minutes.*

We met a boy, probably 15 years old, at the front gates to show me to the gym. The poor guy was so awkward it was ridiculous. I didn’t even try talking. I obviously disturbed him that much. My host dad left with a quick “Good Luck” and Mr. Awkward and I walked towards the gym (in silence) and around it until we got to what was obviously a locker room. He kind of just pointed and then yelled something inside. A bunch of girls poked their heads out of the door with obvious surprise at the huge white person standing outside. The boy quickly explained (I think) about who I was and left me with the girls.

Basketball… Okay, so I haven’t played in a year. That makes me really out of shape. In Japan, there is basketball club every day, before and after school, all year. Let’s just say I wasn’t looking too pretty for my first day of school after practice… It doesn’t help that Japan is extremely humid and their gym has no air conditioning!

School started at 8:45 and I had to get inside at 8:25 to make an awkward speech in front of all the teachers. Thankfully, I wasn’t alone. Claudia is another 6 week student that went to Handa with me and had to make a speech too. I’m sure we had similar introductions. The only difference was that she spoke in Japanese…

Claudia :)

In Japan, (I think I have explained this before) they have a different system than America. The teachers don’t have their own rooms. All the teachers get is a crappy desk in a crowded staff room. It’s more like the students get their own room. They have one homeroom where they have all of their classes (except for like PE and Home Economics). The teachers go from class to class instead of the students.

This was on the CHALKboard when I arrived. :)

This was my class schedule.

Yes there is an allotted time for cleaning.

Basically, this is what I did in class: A) Slept! Extremely tired after morning practices B) Stared blankly in the direction of the teacher. Or C) Doodled in my notebook. A common doodle.

I did memorize the Hiragana alphabet during those 2 weeks. Be proud. Something productive. :)

I met a lot of cool people. This is Yu and NaNa, they were the best English speakers in the class and consequently my guides.

Lunch time!

Notice we’re in a classroom. They have no cafeteria and they bring a Bento every day. A bento is a Japanese Lunch Box. This is the usual O-Bento. (Yes, their mother's make their lunch everyday!)

This is my whole class, taken on my last day. You can atually see the clear division between guys and girls. Yeah, it was always like that. Japanese boys are incredibly shy and innocent… It was annoyingly cute.


Basketball, I went to every practice for two weeks. It was crazy. But, I did it. In the end, I even got to play in a couple games.


I’ll miss my Handa High comrades. :’(

#28 Inuyama Castle

Inuyama Castle! I was so excited when I heard that we would be going to an actual castle!! So awesome!

The drive there was kind of long, especially with Japanese crazy driving. I lost a couple years off my life I think… But it was all worth it when I saw the castle. The first word that came into my brain when I saw it was fortress. It sits on top of a mountain completely surrounded by trees giving the castle the perfect view to watch over the town.

We had to walk up a million steps just to get to the top of the hill.

Inuyama is one of the oldest castles in Japan and has a history of being burned down and taken over by many different clans.


It was really cool. :)

The top! The view is amazing!


The steps inside the castle were really just very steep ladders. There was about 4 floors I think..

This is the shrine.

I am writing my wish :)

“I wish for happiness and good health for the Kato Family :)”

#27 Jan

Ah… Well today, I met Jan. He is like the YFU poster boy. His host mom is the YFU Area Representative so it makes him like the center of all things YFU.

The guy speaks Italian, German, English, Japanese, and a little French. He is seventeen and from Switzerland. But, he is half Italian and half Filipino. So let’s just say he is an interesting character. And no, he is not my type… He is like a head shorter than me.

We went out to lunch with Yan, another exchange student from Switzerland. It was his going away party. He has been in Japan for ten months and is going home in a week.

The lunch was extremely fancy, but entirely western at the same time…

After lunch we did Pitikura at Apita Mall. We met some of Jan’s friends there. :)



We got done with Pitikura just in time to catch the next train back to Handa where we would be meeting another exchange student from Germany. We headed to the Red Brick House to go see the Handa Choir sing. Another YFU exchange student would be singing in the choir which was the reason for going in the first place.

By the end of the event I was surrounded by three Germans two girls and one guy and two Switz guys. Europeans… They can speak every language I swear. They were flowing from Japanese to German to Italian to English like it was normal. It was an experience and altogether a good day. :)

#26 A Wednesday in Handa

Another Wednesday, that means… English Club!

The girls taught me how to do “Traditional Japanese” flower arranging today.

I also showed them my newspaper from home. They were amazed when I showed them that my brother was actually in the newspaper for graduating high school. The thing that probably caught their eye the most was the housing ads and the clothes ads. The houses were very large! The clothes, they were so cheap! It was pretty funny.

After English Club, I went to a different AEON mall with Tomoko and Mayuko. Mayuko wanted to do some shopping and take Pitikura with me. :)





The whole girl gang went out to Udon after that. We ate on the traditional tatami mats. Yeah, we had French fries for an appetizer. I thought cool so I reached out grabbed one and popped it into my mouth like any other American would do. Oh no, bad call. My host mom looked at me, made sure I was watching, picked up her chopsticks and used her chopsticks to eat the French fries. Yeah…

Yummy Udon with Tempura on the side :)

#25 Meetings

I started off the day embarrassingly wearing a not flattering white polo shirt and really hot long length jeans because we would be going to Handa High School for an informational meeting on my 2 week stay.

Before Handa though, we went to my host mother’s volunteer school Miyaike Elementary. This time I wouldn’t be attending class though.

My host mother is a very good painter. She and the other volunteers hand painted onto big poster board the scenes from a Niimi Nankichi book. They all practiced reading the story aloud and flipping through the scenes. Even though I couldn’t understand the language, the pictures were good enough so that I could follow along.

This was the volunteer group. My host mother painted this first scene.

After Miyaike we went to the meeting. Basically, they gave my host mother a long list of things I can’t do or wear, otherwise known as rules. The list was really long too.

For example: 1) You can only wear black, navy blue, white or grey socks. 2) You can only wear skirts that go past your knees and it has to be black, blue, white or grey. 3) You have to bring your slippers, gym, and PE shoes to school every day. 4) You must cut your nails. 5) etc. etc. etc.

Needless to say I didn’t follow number 4. Cut my nails. No way. I need these babies to survive. I don’t think my fingers could function properly without them.

The meeting wasn’t that bad. I found out that my homeroom teacher is the English teacher. Lol.

#24 Humiko

Yesterday, I hung out with a member of English Club today we will go to a Drawing Club member’s house.

Guess what I am learning to do?

Weaving.

Yeah, I got to use the cool little wooden machine and everything too.

Humiko, is the lady that showed me her weaving hobby. She was extremely nice, almost a polar opposite to the forceful Mimi.

Weaving doesn’t sound like a fun hobby but I found it completely fascinating. I always like to know how things work and I learned how to make the most used material in the world, cloth.

These are pictures at my failed attempt to make string from cotton using a traditional Japanese spinning wheel. Humiko made it look so easy when she was doing it. I spun the wheel one time and the string broke.


This was me trying to use the western style spinning wheel.

I couldn’t use that one either. :(

When I actually started weaving the fabric was when I started feeling better. I could do this part. :)


After weaving, I got to play Wii. As far as I have seen, everyone has one in Japan. I played Wii Fit. I beat all Huniko’s scores on the Balance Games. Hehe. She still has the record for dancing though, I couldn’t do that to save my life.

The finished project.

#23 The Cinema

If you really knew me, you would know that I have deep addiction to movies. I am full blooded American on that front. We love our movies.

At home, we have stacks of movies to choose from and a Netflix subscription. My dad and I have our movie nights, at least twice a week.

Here in Japan, they don’t really have the same love. They have the cinema and DVD rental shop.

Today, Nariko, my host cousin(?), took me to the cinema. :) I didn’t have to worry about not understanding anything because we chose to go see The Prince of Persia, which would be in English with Japanese subtitles.

I was extremely excited. My first movie in like 2 weeks!

Normally, in America, if my friends and I wanted to go to the movies, we would just hop in our cars and go. It’s not the same here. You have to plan it out with your parents and make sure it’s not conflicting with any of your club activities or after school study classes. And if you are free to go, your parents still have to drive you because here in Japan you don’t get your license until you are 18 years old.

I can’t imagine what they would do if they ever wanted to go on a date. Kids definitely have a lot more freedom in America. That is for sure.

Anyways, the move was great. :) Now that I have seen a movie again, I want to see another. I’ll probably walk down to the rental shop one of these days. Apparently I have a huge home theater in my bedroom. What I mistook as a broken over head lamp is actually a ginormous pull down screen that can be hooked up to a projector. I won’t have to pay the 1,400 yen to go to the theater. :)