Let's just start from Saturday, the day of Asahigaoka's school festival, teaching kids at my own school and my host parents leaving for a business trip to Taiwan.
I woke up pretty early in the morning, took my time to get ready and did everything in super slow speed and then went to school. At school we practiced what we were going to do with the kids. It was fun, even the practicing. When the kids came everything went as planned - besides the fact that not as many kids as expected showed up, so we had to change the seats a little, but besides from that, everything was just fine. I had to leave a little earlier to make it to Asahigaoka's festival with my friends though. We took the bus from our school to Maruyama Koen station, I changed from uniform to normal clothes there and we ate some bread bought in Hokou I think the name is Hokou, kind of forgot haha - but it means Scandinavia in Japanese, even though they doesn't really have ANYTHING in there we have, they have a lot fun stuff, but nothing I really no and NO KAJKEGER!!! Awful!it was super tasty, but kind of felt nauseous afterwards - really creamy bread haha. It was nice though and I was really chocked in when we ran around the store, because the wall is one big picture of Nyhavn in Copenhagen!! Then you feel at home huh? I certainly did. I love how famous Denmark is here, I feel a lot more at home here than in other countries where people ask if Denmark is the capital of Sweden, that's just... Awful. Here they ask what we talk in Denmark a lot though, they all kind of think we talk English as first language haha.
Oh well, back to the story. We then took a bus from Maruyama Koen to Asahigaoka - which is about 20 minutes from Maruyama Koen station. We were kind of surprised by that, poor 'kids' we see take that bus every morning while we're waiting for ours! We found our way to the school by following girls on the street haha. The festival was super nice, I was SO surprised of how big that school was and how many sport prizes there were around the school!! It was SO much bigger than Seishin (my school) and it was just crowded - everybody's friends must have come + parents, the students of Asahigaoka and random people like me and my friends. Even though I know Ryou from that school, but I can honestly say that we don't really pass as friends - we barely know each other and I can say that we most certain won't get to know each other better than this, but more on that later haha. So we went around and found out that they had two Ghost Houses - and who loves Ghost Houses, scary movies etc. more than I? I don't know, but of course we went in haha. It was so much fun and really scary! Not what you would expect for a classroom dressed up haha. It can't even be described, but I can say as much as it was super dark, super creepy with hands everywhere, people and shock everywhere etc. It was so cool. I LOVED every second of it haha. Worth going to the school festival for haha. We though about eating Takoyaki, but we couldn't get ourselves to eat anything since the super creamy bread. Yuck. Haha. So we just went to see the preforming bands, which where actually surprisingly good and they really had a great spirit! Gotta love things like that haha.
After the festival we went to take purikura and get something to eat we finally felt hungry hahawhich ended up being McDonald. Damn it's been long since I ate fastfood the last time, so that was pretty nice - you miss things like McDonald when you haven't been there for long haha.
Sunday was nice and quiet. Sayaka had school, so I was alone in this big big house. I didn't really know what to do, so I watched Glee, took a long bath, cooked some nice food etc. and finally I decided to go shopping, in a really cheap store near the house called Shimamura. It's SO nice, I love it. So I went there and bought these two cute shirts, both same style - black and white. One with completely laces everywhere and the other with a little laces on the back. I LOVE them. I also bought some white shorts with a black belt to go with them. So that was super nice! That was also all I did for this day haha.
Monday is the day I personally prefer the most, the day I definitely did the most. I went up pretty early and had to go to this AFS event. We where watching some sort of play in Nishi-ku, near Odori. We all met at Nishijuuithchome station - Eden and I was there long before everyone else, so we just sat and talked until the rest showed. Then we all went to the place we had to watch the play and watched it. It took about 20-30 minutes and was supposed to be a comedy, but it wasn't really any of ours humor. We we're all really close to falling asleep and teased each other more than we really watched the play. It was performed by three actors, two of them talked in Japanese and one of them i English and the play was built up so that they repeat what each other says a lot - so that everybody could understand. Not that that made it any more fun to watch. There was this super cute kid sitting in front of me and she said something funny, turned around and looked at me and I gave her a thumbs up, which she then gave me and touched my thumb with hers - it was super cute, but the mother though differently. She gave me a killer look, just as Eden whispered "Wow, she hates you" haha. She looked like I was going to kidnap her kid and after she even made the cute little kid change seats with her - what the hell woman. The weirdest part was that she was with AFS, I mean - come on AFS, what the fuck? But yea, that was it for the play. After that we went to take purikura - as always. It was nice, we also ate crepes and such. Then Emma and Marina had to go home their curfew is a little different from Michelle's and mine. Talking about Marina, she is going back to America. I'm really sad to have her leaving, but things are just awful with the Host Family and AFS won't let her change - because you can apparently only change if the Host Family doesn't want you, not if you feel very bad there and so on. That's a really bad thing about AFS, if you ask me. But yea, we really needed some purikura then, right?
After Emma and Marina left, Michelle and I went to a "Mobile Case" store - because it's Japan and things like that is a thing over here haha. It was super nice, she bought matching iPhone covers for herself and her boyfriend - she'll give it to him on his birthday - how cute is that? After that I asked her to wait with me at Odori park because, here's the thing, I had a DATE!!! Yes, really!! A God damn real date! So Michelle was super sweet and waited with me. We sat and talked when he finally called to say that he was there and so on. So I went over to him, said thanks and bye to Michelle and the two of us walked from Odori to Sapporo station. It wasn't awkward at all - which is amazing when you think about it, because this guy doesn't speak a word English and my Japanese isn't THAT good haha. How we survived hours together? I have no clue haha. We went to a Game Center at Odori station, because that's what you do on dates in Japan and I must honestly say that I love it haha. He won me a teddy, which no one have ever done for me before, so I was happy. He used way too much money to get it though - I even told him to stop three time, but he didn't want to listen haha. Too cute huh? So he finally got it for me and we went to drink something like a smoothie. I felt bad about him using that much money on getting me a teddy, so I tried to pay for the smoothie things, but NO, I definitely wasn't allowed to pay ANYTHING at all. It surprised me, those kind of dates aren't real. That only happens on TV etc. but no, I actually found a guy who is like that - how amazing huh? It gets better though. After that, we went to take purikura of course and that was fun. When the last picture came he asked me if he could kiss me, that really took me by surprised not that I didn't hope he would do it, not the ask part - didn't see that one coming - but the kiss part hahabut I said yes of course. Super cute that he asks huh? Then we edited the pictures etc. and it was time for me to go home, so I wouldn't break the curfew even though Sayaka was the only one home - it would still be bad to break it or make her worry. A thing that really surprised me was that he said he would take me home, because he was worried that something might happen on my way, and I mean - he lives about 30 min from Odori - the other way than I do - and I live about 30 min from Odori as well, so he would have over an hour home because of the time and the fact that it was a holiday and that makes the busses go on weekend times. He took my hand on the way home and didn't let it go, unless necessary, at any time. How cute is that? So he took me all the way to Sumikawa station and I said it was fine from here, he could just go back. The bus would come 30 min later and it only takes 20 min to walk from Sumikawa to the house, so I said I would just walk back, but he wouldn't let be do neither of those things alone - so he walked me back all the way to the door. He stopped at one point on the way and asked if he could kiss me again and I obviously said yes. It was funny though, he stopped when people came walking by and said 'embarrassing' - because, here's the thing - Japanese people doesn't kiss in public places or in front of others etc. haha, but all I could say was cute, because, well, it was! I told him how we kiss everywhere in Denmark and he was just like 'unbelieveable' haha. Then he kissed me one more time on the way, where no one interrupted and right in front of the house as well. It was amazing, the whole thing haha. I'm so happy. That was also my first date EVER, so it couldn't have gone much better huh? In Denmark we don't date so much, we mostly go on dates with people we're already together with - I blame it on the low drinking age haha, but yea. That was the amazing Monday!
Tuesday, I went to a tea ceremony in the three first periods instead of school - that was super nice. Last time I was at a tea ceremony was in 2008 in Tokyo, so that's quite some time ago haha. I also ate at this nice steak place with Sayaka - super nice!
Wednesday the family returned. Super nice seeing them again!! They also gave me souvenirs from Taiwan. A cute bracelet and a turtle phone strap. Both hand made and the turtle is supposed to keep bad things away. How nice!
Today nothing much happened. We've been preparing for tomorrow & Saturdays school festival most of the day, so that was quite hard work. We started making the Ghost House, we displayed our calligraphy things, got our class t-shirts etc. It was nice, can't wait till tomorrow, where it's only for the school, and Saturday, where it's for everyone to come. Both will be super fun, I'm sure!
On the calligraphy picture I made the long one in the 'middle' and the little one which has a light blue frame!
And here is some pictures of a phone strap of my winter uniform with my name in Japanese on + the teacher teaching the girls push ups haha! And other random things found at my school haha.
That's all for now, thanks for reading!! Take care!
So, long time no see! Well, 13 days - guess that isn't that much after all. Nothing super interesting has really happened, unfortunately - but of course, I can't really expect every day to be super amazing or anything haha, but really - I haven't been up to much.
Today I took the wrong bus though, for the first time! Way to go, Erika. I had to walk all the way home from the wrong bus stop, after I nearly died from the shock of taking the wrong bus and didn't know if I would be able to get of or not - thank God I had other than just my pass with me, or else wouldn't have known how to get up - and I mean, I don't speak Japanese THAT well. So that was kind of a shock and it made me realize that I have to be a little less careless and actually look which bus I'm boarding instead of just thinking that it's the right one, because it should be there right now haha. Well, lesson learned!
What I've been doing;
I've been out with Michelle one time, which was super nice and super fast, we just went to buy me some internet to my phone, which I'm super glad I bought - I can actually put my iPhone to use again haha. Then we went to eat some waffles in Sapporo eki, it was super - I swear that I never ate such a good waffle before, so that was good. There was also these weird shadow things that looked like people, it kind of scared me when I first saw it, but after staring at it for a while I just came to love it and honestly, I wanted to steal it home with me haha, but that would be a crime - dammit! While we were talking and stuff, Michelle told me all about her new boyfriend - I promised her not to say anything about him on my blog, since nobody new nothing - but now that they're official, I guess I'm allowed, right? If not - sorry Michelle haha. It was a cute story - which is hers to tell, not mine - but I'm so happy for them, she seems super happy to be with him, even though she has a lot of complaining to do about him, but I guess that's what happens when you find love - you get scared of losing it.
Marina's school festival was pretty nice, not really much to do at a school festival as soon as you've looked the whole thing around, haha. So we just sat down, talked, looked at boys and got some good girls talk. It was super nice! Nothing better than a lot of good girl talk haha, I guess people who are reading that have found out how much of a girl I really am, haha. Also that I say haha waaaay too often!! Gotta stop doing that! But it's better than lol right? Haha. Dammit....As a complete coincidence this boy who've I talked very little with on mixi (the Japanese version of Facebook) happened to be there at the same time, so we decided to, you know, just say hello - and I can tell you, it wasn't more than the most awkward "Hello" I've ever experienced haha. Marina couldn't stop laughing after, seriously - so that was, well, awkward. But it was also fun to some extent, I mean, it's good to actually talk to new people sometimes!
I also went out with Miwa & Shiori, because Shiori's cousin from Germany was at our school for a day, we didn't do much really, we just ate ice cream, took pruikura and went to the pet store. It was fun though!
My school festival is next week, the 21st of July. I'm actually really looking forward to it, I mean - we don't have things like this back in Denmark. I will be modeling our class t-shirt with Mikko at the opening ceremony, which will be super awkward, because I don't really go good as a model, but for these sweet Japanese girls, I'm apparently really pretty - so thank you girls, but many of you are ten times prettier than me!! Girls problem, right? Haha. Well, I'm still looking forward to it, it'll be super! My class will be a ghost house, and if you know me which I've said WAY too many times in this entry already haha, sorrythen you know that I LOVE ghost houses. Even though this is in a classroom and probably won't be so scary and stuff, but still!! It'll be so much fun! I also got Eden to come to my school festival would be awkward if he read this haha to come to my school festival, which I'm super happy for - because, let's just say I showed a picture of him to my friends and they ABSOLUTELY loved him haha. They really can't wait to meet him, so how great is that? I really want the best for them and for him, so maybe it'll turn out as a win/win situation - what do I know? I just know they're really happy for him to come and that makes me super happy - and I would be lying if I said that I didn't want to see how the react when seeing him in real life.
And then there was the sick days - not much to say about them. All that happened was me watching the whole season 1 and most of season 2 of Glee and the movie called "The Help." The Help was a great movie and I can honestly say that I've fallen in love with Glee, just as well as almost everything else I watch - I'm terrible - I like everything too much, it's no good haha, I'm a sucker for series! Now that's out. The cleaning lady made me food the two days I was sick and she took good care of me - so did the family of course, I swear that they took my temperature 2-3 times a day (the sickness started out with a fever). They are so super sweet, how can you not love people who are like that to you?
Oh and we watched Amazing Spiderman!! I will say that I think the name speaks for itself, because it was indeed amazing!! I can't wait to watch Batman as well - I'm sure that'll be awesome as well!! Damn, I love movies way too much - I should get myself a social life haha.
We also got three new exchange students at my school, they'll all stay for about only 20-22 days though. I really am the only one staying for over a whole mont, it seems. They are really sweet though, even though I haven't talked much with them - and I haven't talked with the third one at all yet. We will all go to this tea ceremony thingy next Tuesday though, so I guess I'll get to know them by then, which will be nice. Even though the two girls I've talked with, from France, doesn't speak that much English - so it's going to be a though one. But oh well, we will get through it haha.
The girls in my class also started passing me these super cute notes all the time, all in English - I love it, it's so cute. Then I give them a reply and they come back with a new paper the next day, how cute and old fashioned is that? I love it! Haha.
We've also had some really pretty afternoon skies lately;
And I went out with sweet Misato for some purikura - we wanted to do something together, but didn't really have time for more than just some purikura - so we honestly can't wait till summer vacation, it'll be great!
So that's kind of it, tomorrow I have school. Well not really, I signed up to teach kids English again - at the school - but I'll have to leave earlier, because Misato, Miwa, Hikari & I are going to the Asahigaoka school festival - I can't wait, think it'll be fun, especially to hang with some friends. Well, Ryou also goes to that school, so maybe I'll have some luck, even though I really doubt it and basically already did give up on him - kind of. So I'm glad I'll be going with these sweet girls, because they are great company! It'll be so much fun, I'm sure about that!
The family (host mother and father) also goes to Taiwan tomorrow on a business trip, so it'll only be Sayaka and me until Wednesday, so that'll be fun. Some alone time with Sayaka is always nice!
I also received two packages from Denmark! One from Sofie containing Guldkarameller - and "only" that, well I found out later that tree letters were missing from the package - which makes sense, since it was open at the time I found it. Fun thing is, it haven't been opened in the house and the family says that this never happened before - so they have no idea what to do about it and, well, what can you do? I'm just sad that tree letters are gone. Really wanted to know what they said, you know. The other one was from lovely grandmother! Just the fact that she send me a package took me by great surprise - I was so happy! The package was containing a dress she bought at Mallorca - which is really pretty, because my grandmother actually knows what I like haha - and a lot of Danish licorice. Which I've actually missed really bad, so thank you so much grandmother!! Made me super happy. Since Japanese people normally doesn't like licorice at all, then I find it very funny to get them to try it haha. So far, I've actually found people who likes it, amazing! I also things it's wild that you can't get it here - well, not in Sapporo at least - as far as I know, not sure of course - but never seen it before and no one here knows what licorice is - I mean, they doesn't even have a Japanese name for it haha.
Last thing; I REALLY love this song at the moment, it's not the whole one, so I guess I might actually have to buy their album instead of just being on YouTube all the time, but give it a listen if you're up to it!
And;
TO ALL OF YOU IN DENMARK (or anywhere having summer vacation, reading this) HAVE AN AMAZING SUMMER VACATION!!!!!!!!!!
That's all I've got for now! Hope you enjoyed, sorry for the late update - will try to keep it a little more often - and thanks for reading!!
Yesterday there was an AFS event, a farewell party for the students who came here last year. I didn't get to talk to them much, but they were, well are, all really sweet and lovely people - so it will definitely be different when they aren't here - in one way or the other. There are three students leaving, Ines, Aliz and Stefan. I wish them all the best in the future, who knows, maybe we'll see each other again someday! I hope they had an amazing and unforgetable year!!
But well, let's start at the morning. I woke up at four or five, as I think that I've already said, and then I just ate breakfast, took a bath etc. It was nice, I got a LOT of alone time, since I was the only one home most of the morning, everybody left early and would came back after five - which was the time I had to be in Sapporo myself. So that was super nice, everybody needs some time alone in a big house - and if you know me, you know that I LOVE being home alone, no matter where I am in the world. I took the bus near my house to Sumikawa station about 15:36 - it was a little late though and then went to Sumikawa, took the train to Odori and walked, using the underground walkway for once, to get to Sapporo station. While walking in the underground walkway Emma texted me asking if I wanted to meet up before the farewell part, which started at 17 and it was only 16 at the time, so I said yes of course. I walked to meet her and walked the completely wrong way, don't ask me how, but I just walked a weird way, but ended up at Mr. Donut where she was waiting for me. She gave me half a donut, which was really nice since I didn't really eat any lunch - AT ALL. Then we went out and I told her that Marina and Museon already was at the meeting place, so we decided just to head straight there instead of doing all sorts of things. Right in front of Sapporo station these two guys looked at us, and well, I always look people back - straight in the eyes, and then they waved - which isn't really unusual. I waved back and they waved me to come, I just smiled and walked further the other direction with Emma. Then I though to myself, that THAT was a chance I won't get again - so I somehow convinced sweet Emma to walk up to them and talk a little - even though it was in the wrong direction. So we did that and I got to talk with one of the guys a little, (it's funny, whenever I tell Japanese people that my name is Erika, they ask me if I'm half, because it's a common name in Japan - it's a german name though, they just don't know - but I mean really, do I look half? Not the slightest! It happens ALL the time - sorry if I already wrote that haha). But well, this guy seemed nice and I asked for his mail before we walked to far away from the meeting place, I got it and we rushed toward the meeting place. I really think Japan did something to me, I'm apparently not so shy anymore haha, people here don't believe me when I tell them that I actually am a shy person, but maybe it isn't so true anymore. Well, we came to the party where a lot of Japanese speeches was given, tears was shed, bye-bye messages written and so on. It was nice seeing how nice years people apparently had - I mean, everybody was crying and laughing, so yea. I hope I will feel that why by the time I have to go home, even though - I'm pretty sure I will. So we ate dinner there and stuff. Afterwards Eden, Emma, Marina, Museon, Michelle and I went to do purikura - it was super fun and super hot. While the Emma and Michelle edited the pictures, Marian and I tried to get Eden and Museon to talk to some girls who they already said hello to - just hello that is - because I mean, it was fun trying to get them to do it - because it was impossible haha. Don't know why though. After I talked a little with these two girls, who I now know is called Saki and Haruki, they were super nice and they screamed when I called them cute haha. Eden said I should ask them to take purikura with me and I did - with Marina - and I they just screamed again and they screamed almost the whole time during the purikura - NEVER felt that much like a celeb before haha. It was super fun and they were super sweet!
Saki, Haruki, Marina and I - those gilrs were super sweet, but they wrote M and E wrong haha, cute right
Sapporo Station at night!
When I came home the guy who I met the same day called me, we had already been messaging, but I was very surprised that he called me, and we talked for a while. He has a super nice voice and is super sweet actually. We talked for a while, but since I was already talking with Por-chan on skype I asked him to mail with me instead, because I was talking with someone. He asked if it was my boyfriend and I was like, I don't have a boyfriend and that's when Por-chan choose to yell that she is my boyfriend - 4 times - haha damn, at least I don't think he believed her. Well, I hope he didn't. So that was a super nice day!
Today there was school, or not really school, we had to teach kids some English and doing some commercial for the high school - hoping to inspire these cute kids to choose our high school. They were super sweet and it was super fun! So that's just amazing. The whole day I wrote with the guy from yesterday, who told me he does karate - which is cool - and that he's the 3rd best in Japan - which is even cooler haha. So that's nice. I just talked with him for some time again - he is just super sweet, even though I don't understand half he says - he tries and talk English for me to understand better - haha and I just really love his voice, which I probably already said.
Sarah (the teacher) gave me this super cute sticker today! I love Japanese stickers and I love giraffes - so that's just PERFECT!
I also just (not just, maybe an hour ago, or two) ate dinner, which was super nice! So today was great!
It was SO good, in the bowls there is the following; White; Some kind of soup that taste SUPER good The middle one; Miso soup The big one; Rice
I'm off to bed in a minute, because I want to read some Heist Society before going to bed. A super good book by Ally Carter, who I just LOVE! Because my amazing friend from school, Misato, showed her work to me. Misato and I have SO similar taste! It's super nice.
Here's some pictures of the random things that happens at my school;
If you have seen Chihiro and loved it - then you'll love this! Misato (who drew this on Yamade) is REALLY amazing when it comes to drawing, as you can see - this was simply made in two seconds in Math class haha
