Life as an Exchange Student in Japan

Hey everybody!

I think today, after one whole week as an exchange student in Japan, I will tell you guys about my daily life so far.  :D

朝（morning)
For a girl who has been known to sleep until 4 in the afternoon, coming to Japan has been a total body shock. Every morning, my darling iPod wakes me up with the sound of Ireland (i.e. church bells) at the ungodly hour of 6am.

When I searched for "sleepy head" on google I found this and it was much better than the picture I originally wanted so please enjoy it.

 

After the initial body-clock-shock of waking up this early, I get dressed and eat breakfast (generally something cool like eggs and sausage and melon-bread and salad) and go to the bus stop for 7am.

 

The bus costs ￥190 each way so it`s fair cheap. It takes about twenty minutes to get to the train station so it`s a relaxing, picturesque ride. For some reason most bus drivers in Japan (that I`ve encountered) make announcements with this kind of voice:

Seriously, do all professions in Japan come with a special accent or?

 

So then, at about 7:20 I get to Ofuna, where I am greeted with this marvellous sight:

This is the Ofuna Kannon statue, which is a gigantic bust of the Buddhist deity Guan Yin. It`s 25meters tall and absolutely breathtaking. Every day I can`t help but stop and stare at it. It`s truly beautiful. It overlooks Ofuna Station and the surrounding area.

Anyway, then I board the 7:37 train to Ishikawacho, which is the station smack-dab next to my school. Although there are no Buddhas at this station, there is one of the four gates to Yokohama Chinatown, which are also majestic.

Then, I get to school at about 8:00.

学校（school)
School is fun. I have 6 classes in a day (except on Thursday when I have 7) and two Home Room classes per day. Lunch is about 45 minutes which is cool, and I get a delicious homemade bento (Japanese style lunchbox) every day from my host mother. The school also has a cafeteria but it seems to me that mostly senior students eat in there. My year eat in our classrooms.
The length of a day can vary. Classes always start at 8:30 but sometimes they end at 3:15 and sometimes they end at 4:30. towards the end of July, they`ll end at 1pm, which is cool.

家（home)
Once I get home, the same way I came to school, I study, do homework (or attempt to) or read. At the moment I`m re-reading A Game of Thrones and falling in love with it all over again. In the evenings, I help my host mother cook dinner and clean up. Yesterday, I made my first ever Dublin Coddle for dinner to say thank you to my host family. Although it wasn`t a patch on my mama`s tried and tested Coddle, I have to say I did a good job :) and everyone emptied their bowls so I was delighted!

Then I usually spend about 40-50 minutes online, writing this blog and sending emails, and then I shower, bathe and sleep. The shower is very interesting, I`ll save that for another post ;)

Also it may interest you to know that all the girls in my class think that I`m very beautiful, which is sweet. They all say "I want to be white like you!" (which I don`t know if I should take as a compliment cos I`m so pale or...) or "I want your blonde hair" etc etc. So far I`ve heard:

• "Your eye colour is very beautiful!" *cue staring into eyes*
• "Your hair colour is very beautiful!" *cue stroking my hair*
• "Your skin colour is very beautiful!"
• "Your eyebrows are very beautiful!" (I think this was just a polite way of noticing that my hair and eyebrows are different colours)
• "Your feet are very beautiful!" (as I changed into P.E. socks and shoes. Yep. My feet are beautiful here.)

Anyway folks I`m very nemui (sleepy) so I`m off to bed now. Leave suggestions in the comments if there`s any particular topic you want me to write about!

じゃあね、
クイーヴァ
Caoimhe