Sendai Shirayuri Gakuen High School

Wow. This has been the most fascinating, and awkward, and strange, and extraordinary day of my life.

My host mother drove me to the school today at 10:00 to meet the teachers and principal. We met Miracle (the other YFU exchange student going to my high school) and her host mother in the parking lot. As is the custom, we removed our shoes and put on slippers as we entered the building. We were escorted to a meeting room where we waited for the school counselors to come and meet with us. As we waited, we were brought hot green tea and our host mothers discussed various, things, including what they had fed us thus far. - I was very proud of myself for understanding that much of their conversation as it was all in Japanese. The school counselors finally arrived, and gave us our schedules, which included Math, English, Music, Communications, Gym, World History, Information, and Religion.

After our host mothers left, Miracle and I were escorted to a large storage room to try on uniforms. I swear the two ladies helping us were amusing themselves way too much by dressing up the two of us like little sailor dolls. These uniforms are ridiculous. There is a little vest, and then a navy skirt that buttons onto the vest, and then a white blouse that goes over the vest, and then the sailor collar which snaps onto the vest in the most confusing way possible, and then the little tie that attaches to the collar. then there is a light blue gown type thing that covers the entire uniform so that it doesn't get dirty. I really don't get the point of the uniform since it is covered up most of the time anyway, and everyone just goes around wearing the gown. Then there are the indoor shoes, which I had to buy, and the special socks. Also, we have to have two different kinds of gym shoes. Ones for outside, and ones for inside. My host mother took me after school to buy a second pair. It is really sad that I have to buy the largest size that is sold. lol.

After the two women had had their fun in dressing us up, we were escorted to the library, where we were told that our classmates would come to get us once class was over. As soon as we were left alone, the two of us burst into silent hysterics. Everything suddenly seemed so hilarious. I don't even know why. We talked about every little thing that had occurred in the 24 hours that we had been separated, relieved to have a conversation that consisted of more then two-word sentences. And then there was a rumble, of hundreds of feet hammering towards us, and screaming, and suddenly we were bombarded by a hundred girls with exclamations of KAWAIIKAWAIIKAWAII!!!!! Without knowing what exactly was happening, we were herded off to our individual classrooms for lunch.

In Japan, students have a homeroom they stay in, and teachers are the ones that travel from room to room. Lunch is usually eaten in the homeroom. A desk was immediately cleared for me, and right away they all started asking questions at once. Everyone seemed eager to try out their English skills, so they would ask simple questions in English and I would try to answer in Japanese. The smallest word I said in Japanese received a chorus of laughter and excitement over the fact that I was attempting to use their language. With the constant exclamations of "Ehhh?!?!" it started getting annoying to use Japanese at all.

After we had finished lunch, one of the girls disappeared and told me to wait there. A moment later she reappeared accompanied by two girls with blond hair and blue eyes. The three of us just stared at each other for a moment, unsure of what to say now that there was someone there who would actually understand what the other person was saying. After a moment, the one girl introduced herself as Leah. She is an exchange student from Australia! She offered to show me around the school and I gladly accepted.

When lunch break was over we headed back to my classroom. It was time for my first class in Japanese high school: World History. When we got back to the classroom however, the door was locked with all of my stuff inside the classroom. Great. The classroom was completely deserted. None of my classmates were in sight. We had no idea what to do, so Leah brought be back to the teachers' office to find the main counselor. She couldn't figure out where they had gone, and so had me stay in the library for the remainder of the period.

I was in the library, which was completely deserted, reading Garfield, when suddenly out of no where one of the older Senseis appeared. Our conversation was the strangest thing ever.
"Which country you come from?"
"America"
"Where in America?"
"Colorado"
"Ahh!..." (the usual response when they pretend that they know it but actually don't) "I been to America, two occasion. San Francisco, Boston, and New York City." ..."May I ask one question? Which word you like best? You are Beautiful. You are Pretty. You are Lovely. You are Charming. You are Attractive."
I was lost for words. What in the world?! I finally managed to stutter "Charming."
"Ahh! I see!" "...Why?"
This was too weird. How in the world do you explain that it's the least creepy sounding, coming from a total stranger?

When the class period ended and I found my way back to the classroom, everyone had magically reappeared. The next class was Religion. Oh joy. I think I forgot to mention that Shirayuri is an all Girls Catholic school. Yeah. No one seems to be at all religious though except for the "sister" who taught the Religion class. It's very strange. Catholic, in Japan, must be some cool "Western" thing or something. The class itself was terrifying as it was completely in Japanese. I actually managed to pick up on some of the stories though. Yay!

After the class I was once again surrounded and attacked with KAWAII! The girls started asking about something, which I could not understand. I finally figured that they were saying "violin" since we had been talking about music earlier. I replied "cello" and they immediately got all excited and started asking for pictures. I was completely confused, until I realized that they had not been saying "violin" but "boyfriend." Do not ask how I managed to confuse the two words. So now they all think that I have a boyfriend named Cello. Super.

First Dinner Together

On the way home from the train station, my host family had asked me what my favorite food was. I replied that it was sushi, thinking that they were just curious and making conversation. At dinner time I came downstairs to a huge sushi dinner. It was fabulous and so sweet of them. My host grandparents live right next door and come over to eat dinner with us every night. So far everyone seems to speak a little bit of English except for the grandmother.

Random things that I have found amusing:

• the TV has a remote control specifically for rotating it
• there are lights underneath the stair railing
• when you flush the toilet, water in the sink automatically starts running
• we are constantly changing slippers for everything: indoor slippers, bathroom slippers, backyard slippers, outside shoes.
  
• I have my own set of sheets and towels that are very kawaii: pink with bunnies
  

The Kasahara Family

I finally met my host family today!!!! They were there waiting the moment I stepped off of the train. There was tons of excitement and pictures being taken. I have a host father, a host mother, and a host sister who is about a week older then I am. Her name is Midori, although she goes by Mimi.
On the way to their house we stopped at their favorite bakery and bought every kind of bread and sweet roll imaginable for lunch. The Kasaharas live in a small suburb of Sendai City and it is beautiful. There are trees and lush greenery everywhere. We passed by my school on the way to the house. I start tomorrow!

Japanese Trivia

I apologize to anyone who can't read this, but we found it on a subway and though it was hilarious.

Akihabara

After we checked into the Hotel Universe, our YFU person, Sato-san, took us to an "American" restaurant for dinner. It was pretty funny to see the Japanese interpretation of American food. It was all sea-food spaghetti, and sea-food pizza, and house salad with octopus on top, and matcha ice cream banana splits...
Afterwards she decided to take us to Akihabara. We only had time to go to the main Akiba store, and then walk up the street of endless other shops, but even at that I was not disappointed. After three years of wanting to see the place, it was every bit as magical as I always thought it would be. Seeing it at night just made it all the better. It was an endless sea of color and lights in the midst of a pitch black night. Unfortunately though, my camera's battery died right as we walked off the subway.