Bringing this up to date.

Here I am posting some things I wrote about every day since I got here.

8/15/11
So yeah, this house it pretty cool~ It's like a really old fashioned traditional Japanese house.

I have my own room which is nice. Two stories, so many rooms. The staircase is so STEEP. I almost fell, twice. I feel like a ninja using them lol. My siblings names are Taka (boy) and Yuki (girl). They are both so nice. My dad laughs alot, and makes jokes, I can understand some of them and they're not laughing at me which makes me feel better. My mom is so sweet. She knows the most english in the house, but that's like, a really teeny bit. Mostly I've been nodding and smiling and saying "Hai". I'm being so careful though. I'm afraid of doing something wrong. So yep. The next few days will be weird/funny since I can't speak. They ask me stuff in Japanese and I can understand, but like I can't say something back besides, yes or no. 

8/16/11

Today I went with my mom, brother and sister, to a friend's house of theirs. The lady was so nice,

and I saw the most adorable, tiniest puppy I'd ever seen in my life!! I was like. ouo It is sooooo cute! Er... kawaii desu, haha. We stayed at the house for about an hour, then when we went home, the lady gave us the puppy to take home! So I was like, what. From what I understood, we're only keeping it for a few days. And it doesn't have a name yet, they want me to name it. I don't know what lol. Never named a dog before... help. Haha. Yup, then we brought it home and played with it for a bit. It's so cute, it waddles around and is so funny when it walks quickly. It like, bounces. Then we ate dinner, and after I sat with my brother in the tatami room and watched some sort of anime. 

8/17/11

My mom took me to Ueno park, and the museum of art and the international museum of Tokyo. My first train ride in Japan, it was pretty neat. I got one of those cards you just swipe on top of the stall and go in. The trains are like the metro in Canada and France but they seem more advanced. Everybody is so quiet on the train. It's bad manners to to talk on the train, especially to talk on your cellphone. Then we had to stop to switch trains and had like 20 minutes between trains so we stopped at an instant... restaurant. I don't remember what the food was called. My mom was like "this is fast food" but it's way better than any fast food in America lol. When we got to Ueno park we got tickets to two galleries. The first one was Greek stuff, and I have already seen the stuff at the louvre and other museums so i was just kinda meh. The second one was ancient Japanese stuff which was really cool, and alot of it was actually Chinese stuff since that is what people brought to Japan. It was pretty cool. Then we were both tired so we decided to go home. It was so hot. When I got home I went to my room and stood in front of the AC unit. When I was out I was observing all the people and things they were doing and the clothes. All the girls are dressed so cutely. And they all have heels on. lol. Trying to make themselves taller. But there were tons of girls with knee-high socks on which is like, really dumb. Summer's not the best season to do that.

8/20/11

Today I took a 1 hour car ride into Tokyo with my mom, dad, and their friend. We went to this pretty fancy restaurant for lunch for which I was SORELY under dressed. I wish they would've told me. They mostly talked and I listened. I was observing clothes again and noticed there were almost no people wearing jeans in the city. I was and I felt sooooo out of place. I really need to go shopping. After, we went to the Kabuki theater which was really neat. it's like a play, but Japanese-style. It was from 2:30 to like 5:30 so a really long time. Then when it was over, it took us almost 3 hours to get back home. Tokyo in the middle of rush hour is TERRIBLE. I was trying to sleep in the car, but it was a rather bumpy ride so I kept being jerked awake. When we got home, we just got my brother and sister and went out to eat, so I really didn't get home 'til 10-ish. 

8/21/11

I fought with a packet of hi-chew. It wouldn't come out of the wrapper so I shook the packet really hard and it went flying across the room. then my mom brought me to a Japanese spa-place. I got like a face-massage and shoulder massage, it felt really good since my back has been kinda hurting lately. I've never been to a spa before so I can't really compare it to something, but it was nice. That took about 2 hours I think. Was refreshing. Then when we biked back (took bikes since it was close by) It had gotten cooler out because of the cloudiness. The bike ride was really nice in the cooler air. 

8/22/11

We went to play tennis for 2 hours about. We had an instructor who was trying to teach me how to swing better. I told them I'd been playing a long time, but the technique for playing is different here in Japan. Different from what I learned back when I had tennis lessons/ played. So yeah now I know the Japanese way of playing tennis. He made us do some practice hitting and stuff and at the end we played a game. Sorta. I always have the problem of hitting the ball too hard so it goes far. Oh yeah, it was an indoor tennis court. Interesting. That was really tiring.
8/23/11

After I had lunch, My host mom took me to a big shopping center in the next city over, Omiya, and I got some clothes. Japanese clothes. We took the car and the traffic was pretty bad, but I did get some pictures and video. Then on the way back from the shopping center we stopped to pick up my school uniform finally. (I did say before, it's kinda plain but it'll do.) Then we were home for about an hour, my dad came home and then he, my mom and I went to a bicycle shop and they got me a bicycle! It's going to be my main mode of transportation from school and back. Also, Every japanese bicycle has a basket on the front. It's pretty convenient though. So yep, now I have my very own japanese bike. Then we got home and got my brother and sister and grandma, and went out bowling! We played two games. I came in 4th the first game and last in the second game. I really fail at bowling. It's nothing like Wii bowling. After we went to a restaurant and had dinner. It was pretty cool I was actually holding up some conversations with them. I'm really getting along with my sister too, it's nice. Then they were talking to the waitress, about how I am staying here for a year. She was like EHHHHH? And she totally flipped out when the spoke to me in Japanese and I responded. She was impressed. And my host mom was proud. She was like, "oh yeah she's been studying every day." So today was really good for me. I feel like I bonded with my family more and we're becoming closer. It's a good thing. I feel like I'm going to be really sad when i change families. I hope that's not for a long time.

Plus in the car my host mom was asking me when's the best time to visit Florida? That would be so cool if they came to visit next year when I'm home! Ahh that made me happy that she even thought of that.