…and I will fail. Without any doubt in my mind. It has so many kanji that I have no idea about, it is not even funny. See, I am actually very happy with my Japanese skills at the moment. I understand most of what my friends talk about now, and can honestly nod along…and not just out of pretended comprehension. So I will not be able to read the kanji very much, and that will fail me. There’s a smaller part of listening, which I think I can manage to do decently on. It’s not my Japanese skill I don’t have faith in, just the list of kanji I know.

And even to understand the questions I do know, I need to understand the kanji in them. It’s like a trap for failure. And one of the things I loathe most, is failure. I do not take it well, and I know that’s what I’m getting set up for right now. So it’s incredibly stressful. UGH.

I made a new video blog too. I answer mailbag questions. Click the link on the side to see my video blogs.  Aaaaand forums are finally up.  Click the new link on the sidebar, above video blogs.  Mostly for people interested in foreign exchange OR people currently living in Japan.

Well, it’s 2:30 AM now…thought I’d do a blog update.  You know, since that’s what normal people do.  And amazingly, I wonder why I’m tired all the time.  Of course…if tomorrow wasn’t Saturday, I’d be asleep by 12:00.

So what’s taken up my time this week?  Many things…  After dinner all this week I’ve been watching Prison Break with my host mother.  She decided that she was going to rent all the episodes and watch them…  So she’s started on that project.  I just happened to catch some of the fourth or so episode and realized that, hey, this is a really awesome show.  I thought it looked really stupid and would be a macho-prison-violence like crap-filler for Fox, but it’s actually a very educated thriller.  Really awesome show!  So now I watch it every night, with no commercials, which is nice.  And tonight we actually watched three episodes (they’re an hour) because after the second one, it left off with a big cliffhanger.  No choice, obviously.  Had to watch the next one.  And tomorrow I can bet that my host mom is going to want to watch a lot of them.  Keisuke is not really interested in the show.

School?  Well, ESS is doing Snow White now as I think I mentioned before.  I’ve been dedicating my time to trying to help that.  I tend to take over projects like that because of my Speech/Drama background.  Starting of course with my third grade performance in Willy Wonka.  Those were the days.  It’s coming along I guess, but as always, ESS is kind of going slow.  Japanese people just don’t have the built in drive that I do to get things done.  It’s a culture difference.  Now, give a Japanese person something they’re interested in and tell them to do it repetitively until they’re perfect, and they could beat me hands down.  You have not SEEN what Japanese arcades are like.  These people put in six hour days and are literally unbelievable…

Besides that, my friends still have stuff going on with the big dances they’re preparing for the Gym Festival.  I have no time to participate in that because (1) it’s much too time consuming and (2) very tiring.

Weekend schedule…let’s see…  Tomorrow I will do a video blog for my BonsaiBlog account, and another video for my other YouTube account.  BonsaiBlog has over 100 subscribers now, not too shabby, eh?  I’m not sure what I’ll talk about, but it’s long overdue.  I’ll make it a fun one and change into my gym uniform.  Maybe show off my swimming uniform too.  Now that I’ve lost weight and everything, ha.

So tomorrow night I’m going to ShinsaiBashi to meet Yudai after he finishes his English class and we’re going to eat tacos.  We haven’t hung out in a long time due to busyness.  He was trying to get a scholarship for his EF exchange, but unfortunately he didn’t make it.   EF had promised one full scholarship and one half scholarship…and there were only three people for two scholarships.  But you know what?  Instead of being content with charging and arm and a leg for their exchange program, EF pulled their full scholarship.  Because apparently no one impressed them ‘enough’ to get it.  You know what?  That’s just cheap and back handed.  I know for a FACT that Yudai has excellent English and I know that he passed the first scholarship test on the first try, and that’s an achievement.  EF has officially gotten on my bad list.  *mental note*  Luckily Yudai’s family can afford it, but obviously a scholarship would’ve been nice.  Compared with the base $3,000 I paid for Rotary, EF Japan is $10,000!!  And that’s standard fair for Japanese exchange programs.  Absolutely unbelievable.  *rant rant rant*  I hate it.  So yeah, tacos, yum.

Sunday I’ll go to a traditional concert with Isshikura-sensei and my host family.  It will be very traditional.  Yes, my other friends are going to a movie.  But I’ll be getting exposed to more Japanese culture.

And on my last Rotary meeting that I’ll go to, apparently I don’t have time to make a speech.  What…?  So yeah.  They want me to come to a second one, but honestly, I’m not sure I’ll have time.  I’ll probably be clinging to my friends and classmates and dreading the 20th when I have to say good bye to them.  I’ll even miss all the girls that constantly yell in high pitched voices.  American girls just don’t do that…

So now that it’s 2:51, maybe I’ll try to get some sleep.  g’night.

Today I saw Spiderman 3 with my friends Fumiya and Tatsuya!  This week has been made up of school days lasting only 2 hours because of tests, so today was the last day and only two hours.  I went home and changed into regular clothes and dropped off my backpack, and then met up with Fumiya on the train.  Tatsuya missed it… so we waited for him at Abeno.

We were going to have dinner after, but then they switched it to lunch, so we were like really early.  At about 1:30 we ate Ramen (it was good).  The movie started at 4:15 though, so we just hung out until then.  Tatsuya bought some new drum sticks, we looked at some music, and sports stuff.  And Fumiya wanted some new clothes so we looked at clothes too.

And we also went to Baskin Robbins, which was good.  I like the Burgundy Cherry flavor a lot… it’s really delicious.  There’s a new place that just opened up by my station in Fujidera, so I have quick access now!  I can regain weight.

Finally we watched the movie (2 and a half hours!) and it was REALLY good.  I know some critics have said less than favorable things, but I really enjoyed it.  Venom is definitely the coolest looking villian, even if Eddie Brock is a jerk and stuff.  And Gwen Stacy was a very eye catching woman, but the Wikipedia’s entry on Bryce Howard has a less than flattering picture of her, which is disappointing.

So yeah, I had a really fun day today!

And I will be switching host families for my last month in Japan.  I think it’s less than good, because I’ll already be stressed about leaving Japan and having a complete change of enviroment, but I’m also looking forward to a bit of change.  The Toyooka-sans live very much like Americans and have much less ‘Japanese-ness’ around the house then the Makis did.  So in that regard, I’m kind of excited.  But I really love staying with the Toyooka-sans too…so it’s hard to know how to feel about it.

This Sunday I have my last big Rotary meeting in Wakayama.  This isn’t like the monthly one I go to, but the one I go to every two to three months with the other Rotary students in my area.  I’m good friends with all of them, and I saw them last Sunday when we went to Sakai and made candy with Rotex.  That was fun.  So yes, this Sunday I have a speech to do and a long drive.

Then the Sunday after I will go with Ishikura-sensei and Toyooka-sans to a concert in KawachiNagano.  It will probably be a very adult and Japanese-filled concert, some traditional singing or instrument.  And next week Friday I have a Rotary meeting.  So that is a total of 5 Rotary meetings in about two weeks.  Sometimes I feel that it takes a large chunk of my time, and breaks up my schedule.  I haven’t been able to do anything with friends for the past two weeks because EVERYONE has been studying for the tests that finished today.  They take it very seriously.  So today was a nice change.

But yeah, my Sundays are out and most of my friends have clubs on Saturdays, so guess what the only day is that I have to hang out with people?  Yeah…  So I’m excited for calmer waters soon.  Hopefully my friends will also be relieved now that the tests are done.

I’ll try to keep this better updated, sorry~

So last week, I missed Rotary because I was sick.  Tonight they called and wondered if I’d be coming to this week’s meeting.  This made me extremely upset, because WHY would they call the night before?  Yes, I have a speech.  But no, I have not looked at it in a week.  I like planning things a LOT.  Tomorrow I’m going to have a good day, because I get to watch my classmates do presentations in Language Lab and then have a two hour special English Class with some third graders and the other two exchange students, like we do every Friday.   That was my plan, and I like it.  So I it offended me when Rotary called the night before to ask me if I was going to come.  If they had called on Monday, Tuesday- even Wednesday- it would have been ok.  But this is the night before, at 8 PM.  So I would like to schedule things with time to think about things and prepare.  That’s just what I like.  If there’s an abrupt change, I get very frustrated.  Not to mention there are tests next week, I have my big Japanese test looming in the near future, I’m getting ready to leave, and all my friends are busy studying!  So obviously when I have a bunch of stress, it was not a good time to ask me if I can make it somewhere on short notice.  I am very very sorry, but tomorrow was just impossible.  Not that it was a big issue that I couldn’t come, I actually made it into more of an issue with my mind, but whatever.

You can make a note about me that I do like things the same, and scheduled.  I eat the same thing for lunch every day, which is a noodle salad thing with chicken.  If that’s sold out, I have a Pork sandwich.  If that’s gone, I have a chicken sandwich.  If that’s gone, I have a Ham sandwich.  The drinks come in more variety, with me usually drinking Diet Coke, Sparkling lemon water, lemon ice tea, or CC Lemon.  If I go to McDonalds, I always order a cheeseburger with medium fry and a coke.  If I eat in the school cafeteria, I always have cuts curry.  I must be an awfully boring person, but it’s true.  I planned on going to Japan for three years, and now I’m here.  I like my life to run smoothly, and for me to always know what’s going on.  And yes, the fact that I eat the same thing every single day at school is extremely sad.  Writing it down helped me realize that.  But I also like uniforms, lots of fun.

So that’s a little bit about how I work I guess.  And why schedule changes  are on the top of my pet peeves list.  I would guess it’s also why I was so conservative for so long.

Anyways, now it’s rather late, and I’m going to be super tired tomorrow, and wake up in a bad mood because I will be tired.  Uhhhhh.

Oh, and I thought I’d mention too, that some Rotex girls were talking to me because they had seen my videos on YouTube.  The ALT teacher also talked to me about them, because he had seen them too.  It’s really weird how people that I know in real life watch them.  I’m going to do a new one soon, now that I have just shy of 100 subscribers.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!  The only reason I typed this up so late was so that I could say that.  Hope it goes well!

Later everyone~

I hope everyone enjoyed Easter…it was completely skipped over in Japan.  No one mentioned it, no decorations, sad.  In fact if a bunch of family members wouldn’t have emailed me about it, I wouldn’t have known it was Sunday.  Oops.  Well, hope it was fun!

Hiroshima was a lot of fun.  Our Rotary group has become really close, so it was even more fun than Tokyo.  Everyone likes to hang out together and stuff, and it was a good trip all around.  The first day, we took the bullet train to Hiroshima.  I had never been on that, but it wasn’t that exciting, it just felt like a regular train.  Besides the fact the scenery is rushing past at 300MPH.  We could turn the seats around so they were facing each other and talk the whole hour and a half, so it wasn’t boring at least.

Once we got to Hiroshima we had okonomiyaki in this multi-level restaurant.  Usually I love okonomiyaki, and it is one of my two favorite foods here.  However, they prepare it differently there and I HATED it.  I only ate like half.  So yeah, I don’t want to have okonomiyaki down there anymore.  Then we just went to the hotel to drop our bags off and stuff, although we had to walk so it kinda sucked.

Then we went to the Memorial Museum for the atom bomb.  That was really really sad.  I was really amazed at the before/after pictures and scaled model.  Like, there was just NOTHING left.  That kind of power is completely terrifying, I’ll be honest.  Most of the city was just absolutely *gone*, with just a few walls left standing.  Then they had on display a lot of clothing, unfortunately from Elementary students, that showed all the burn marks.  Hell on earth kind of thing.  So much stuff that was just really sad and gross.  At first I thought it was bad, and I didn’t want the guilt trip, but I think it was a very good experience.  After seeing that, I don’t think I could ever justify any country using an atomic/hydrogen bomb.  What I learned in history class didn’t even scratch the surface of the devastation that just one bomb brought, and then later of course, the other city was bombed.  And I didn’t know the US was planning to drop a ton more if Japan didn’t surrender, which was really sad.

I didn’t end up feeling that guilty though, because I felt more like it was a different time, different generation.  It was also during a war, and so it wasn’t like both sides weren’t guilty of killing.  I was worried that since I was an American going there, it’d be…bad.  But the Holocaust museum was almost more sad in some ways, because that was a completely innocent group of humans that also had unimaginable stuff happen to them.  Either way, both situations were extremely sad, and so were both museums.

Then we went to sushi for dinner, the one with the moving plates.  It was good, but I only had shrimp sushi and french fries, I wasn’t that hungry.

Back in the hotel we all like hung out in one room and drank pop and had a lot of snacks, with the supervision of the Rotex girl, Noriko.  She’s really cool though, so it was fun.  Went to bed at about 1, although we all went to our separate rooms at like 12.

Second day we basically just went to this island.  We took a ferry which was interesting.  On the island there was a really famous Japanese shrine and gate thing in the water, and we looked at that and stuff.  There are also tame deer EVERYWHERE that you can feed.  And they follow you and sometimes nip you, just like in Nara.  That’s really cool.

Then we took the bullet train back and some other trains and a bus to get back to Toyookasan’s house.  About 4 hours of public transportion…uh!  Then when I got home, I left again right away because Toyookasan’s wanted to go Okonomiyaki.  Osaka goodness, luckily.  But I was so worn out, I wasn’t very happy that I couldn’t just sleep.  Turned out as a very good dinner though!

And school was really great to be back in today.  It was fun, and nice to see my friends again, I forgot how much I missed them.  Today was a half day, with just a ceremony and cleaning.  Tomorrow’s a half day, but we actually have some classes an I have to do something with ESS after.  So yeah, been having fun lately.

Tomorrow and Sunday I will be in Hiroshima.  Kind of nervous about being an American and going.

Today I gave my speech at Rotary, which I thought was a decent one.  It may have been my longest.  But the bus was late because of road construction, so I missed the train, and had to wait for the next one.  Which made me LATE.  So one of the Rotary members calls me, asking where I am and stuff, and tells me to take a taxi.  Easier said than done.  It was a stressful situation.  I ended up having to give my cellphone to the driver so that the Rotarian could talk to him and tell him where I was supposed to go, because I didn’t know the address.  So I got to Rotary like 15 minutes late, had a small lunch (no breakfast…) and gave my speech.  Then I got to go after they finished and stuff.

At ESS Club today (meeting!) I met a new girl who just came back from Canada!  Her English is really good, and she seems very nice, so it’s cool to have a new friend.  I also spoke almost solely Japanese  at ESS, and she was really impressed by it, and even the other members commented that I had improved over Spring Break a lot!  I was really happy.

My new class is very similar to the one I had when I was ninensei, but two boys have been added and Tatsuya won’t be in my class, which is sad.  But Tsutomu (good friend from ESS) is now in my class!  Which is really cool!  He went with some other students to Boston, because there’s like an exchange program every-other year between Nagano and a school there.  That was fun for him, and he brought back some American candy for us to eat.

So I hope Hiroshima is fun!  I probably won’t update until Sunday night or Monday afternoon and stuff.   Hiroshima is a Rotary trip by the way.

Oh, and for going up a grade, I really want to work harder at stuff.  But in some ways, I’m not sure how.  Nagano High School doesn’t give out grades, and subsequently doesn’t make sure that exchange students are really participating.  Like, we don’t take tests except those Japanese tests I always complain about.  And I don’t actually have any workbooks for classes.  So while Japanese students who go to America have to pass classes or return to Japan, we aren’t even given the tools to properly do school.  Not that it’s easy with Japanese and stuff.  But still…  Maybe they should set a little bit higher expectations.  Maybe.  Some stuff is impossible, such as notes, because there is so many kanji mixed in, and I can’t even read it.  Right now I’m stuck between the opinions that ‘its good that they don’t expect much’ and ‘maybe they should expect more’.  I’m not sure what to think.  But I’ll do my best.  I really want to learn Japanese well!

Ok, sorry, I have updated in a long while.

I went to Wakayama with my host parents for a day, that was fun. I am now a 3rd grader (senior) at Nagano High school. I’ve hung out with friends a lot. I’m going to Kobe for todays, tomorrow and Friday.

Wakayama was really fun! It was super cold, and snowing harder than I had ever seen in Japan. We saw a lot of temples and old Japanese culture. There were also a lot of funny things that happened. Anyways, it was a really enjoyable time for me, even though it was like a two and a half hour drive to get there!!

Right now, I’m on spring break. that lasts until the 9th of April, then I start school in the next grade. Japan works a bit different though, because the teachers move with the students. So I’m expecting a pretty seamless switch, besides being on the second floor, not the third, of Nagano High School. I also really want to improve my Japanese more and stuff.

During break, I’ve hung out a lot with friends and stuff. Karaoke, sight seeing, zoo, etc etc. It’s been really fun. A new foreign exchange student came, and I’m hoping to meet him next week and do something with him. A lot of my friends have already met him and stuff. Seems nice. From what I’ve heard, he’s like…really into Japan. More so than me. Anyways, today I went to the zoo. And that was really fun, then I tried to find a sushi place I had gone with Toyookasans, but couldn’t, so had to go to a different place and got home late. That sucks, because I’m so tired right now… Next week I also hope to get together with Fumiya and Tatsuya, so hopefully that will work out.

And I’ll be going to Kobe tomorrow to see Naval ships. Or something. With the head of my Rotary district. He’s part of KawachiNagano Rotary, which hosts me. I’m not sure exactly why he wanted to go with me, but, I’m not quite sure what I’m doing … maybe sight seeing. I’ll post how it went when I come back, and what I did and stuff.

Sorry for not updating so long!

~ Paul

My stay with the Toyookasans has been lengthened by a month at least, and up to two months!! Yay! I’m super happy, because I really love it here, and I didn’t want to leave April 1st, so this is very good news for me!

Apparently Rotary wants me to have 4 host families, but they can only find 3…so the Toyookasans are hosting me longer. They’re really nice, and it’s great staying here! Even without wireless internet for my laptop!

And tomorrow I must go to ESS and finish what we need to finish on the movie.

So yeah. Not much happening lately. Been on a week break, that ends Thursday. Then starts our 3 week Spring Break. After that, I move up to be a ‘Senior’ at school. It’s nice to be in Japan. Lots of time off at the moment! Of course, no snow days.

I spent most of this week hanging out with Yudai, which was fun. Today and yesterday though I just stayed home and did like nothing, which wasn’t really fun.