Monday came, and it was my first opportunity to wear the school uniform, which consisted of long, dark grey pants, a belt, white shirt, Red and greyish striped tie, a maroon or grey jumper ( I went for grey) and a black blazer with the school emblem on the metal cuff buttons. It was a lot more comfortable than I thought, and I soon learned I didn't like wearing the jumper too much.
I also received a workbook I requested with the complete Joyo Kanji List ( government-approved Kanji that all Japanese students must learn before they graduate high school. Any other Kanji in literature must have furigana, small hiragana next to or above the kanji to show how to read it) of which there are 2136. I already know how to write and the basic English meaning for just about all of them, but I decided to learn the readings for each one, making it MUCH easier to compound words up in a dictionary.
After school, Rina, Riho and I went to a small store on our way to yakiniku to eat some grean tea ice cream (which tasted better than i thought it would) and talk before we met the boys at yakiniku. (They couldn't get out of club activities).
The food was interesting because it was cold as we received it on a platter, then put it on the small barbecue in the middle of the table and ate as we pleased. I decided not to eat too much, but my friends just kept on eating and eating, which seemed impossible because most of them were as thin as sticks. I soon learned the Japanese can eat A LOT, but for some magical reason it doesn't affect most of them, with people considered 'overweight' there having what would be a healthy normal body in Australia. This has probably got to do mix of reasons, such as he fact that food here isn't as unhealthy (less sugar) , exercise is a bit more regular (for students at least) and genetics.
Wednesday was a public holiday, and so I decided to go to the book store to get some Japanese versions of some favourites, eventually settling for the prisoner of Azkaban. Japanese novels are interesting, as they are small, compact and suitable for tight spaces (e.g. crowded trains). My book was actually split into 2 smaller books, with the 5th Harry Potter being split into 4 different volumes.
Thursday was interesting, no lessons but a massive 2nd year class v. class handball tournament. I was chosen as the team's keeper. In the end we didn't win, but our class's girl team came 3rd. After my games were finished I spent the day talking to the soccer boys and being introduced to some new people by old friends.
Friday was lessons as normal, so it was a bit of a breeze, sleeping through my history classes. In PE we had volleyball, and my group smashed the baseball boys. I finished the day with a private Japanese lesson (I have one or two every day but one Friday I have 2, and another with the other exchange student) with Reiko Sensei, who taught me at Marryatville last year and this year, so it was nice to have someone around I'm familiar with. She commented on how much my spoken Japanese had improved, which was something I hadn't really noticed before then. It was true, when I took personal classes with her at Marryatville I struggled along but now I find myself having conversations with people, and it's only week 3!
The host brother left that night for a week to do some skiing camp/ trip thing and so Otousan thought it would be a good idea to eat out. We settled on a sushi train place, but it's a bit different to Australian Sushi train, was people get there own cubicles and as well as having the train, food can be ordered using a touchscreen. Japan is one of those places where I think the food looks better in real life than in advertisements and pictures.(I'm looking at you Australian Macca's ads)
Saturday was mostly a day of study, but my host mother insisted in the afternoon that we go get some sunglasses, as I didn't have any and I'd need it for the coming summer. So I was really blessed that the family paid for them, even though I offered.
That pretty much wraps up my week.
