Schoool!

Okay, finished my first week of school! Now I would like to share what happened.

The school system is very different so please be patient on how I explain it. 

Japanese school starts in April (August/September for Americans). Japanese school ends in March (May/June for Americans). You must go to school Monday through Friday, and once or twice a month you have to go on Saturdays (Actually I think it depends on the school). For the most part you have Saturday and Sunday off. My school starts 8:15am. When I get out of school depends on the day. For Monday and Friday, I have 8 periods I have to go to. Tuesday through Thursday I have 7 periods. On Saturday I have 3 periods. One period lasts 50 minutes and you have a 10 minute break between periods. Unlike school in America, you mostly stay in one classroom. That means the teachers go to the students instead of the students going to the teachers. Depending if you go to an afterschool activity, you can go home early or late. When I stay after school, I usually leave school at 6:30pm and get home at 7pm. That's a long time!

*Phew* Now to me...

The school I am in enrolled in is called Kasukabe Kyoei Senior High School (it's a private school). 

 I am in the second grade of high school, three in total class 12 (14 in total). Two years ago, when I was in the third year of middle school (9th grade), I made lots of friends and decided to go there again. So on my first day there were tons of familiar faces but names that I have forgotten long ago...

Here is a list of what the first day was like:

-Arrived at school (A 25 minute bike ride for me)

-Meet my homeroom teacher, Sato Sensei, and wait for 8:30. 

-At 8:30, Sato Sensei takes me to a teacher meeting. I introduce myself for roughly about a minute on the mic and meet with principal. He is a cool guy!

-After the meeting I am taken to my classroom. As soon as I walked everybody's eyes all looked towards me and some people made "Woah!" sounds. Two years ago when I was there, I was a bit chubby. Now I have grown taller and have become skinny. I introduced myself with the same speech I gave to the teachers.

What's really funny is that when I start talking everybody is like, "Woah, his Japanese is good."

After I introduced myself, my homeroom teacher Endo Sensei asked the class if they have questions for me. I immediately laugh to myself. I know exactly what questions they are going to ask.

The first question was "Do you have a girlfriend?" I replied "I used to" and everybody made another "woah" sound. I wish I had this all on camera :P Next question, "How tall are you?" "I am 6 feet tall, so 1meter and 82 cm?" "Wow, he's soo tall."

-For the rest of week when anybody approached me they will say "Herro (Hello)" and I'll reply with a Japanese pronunciation of "Konnichiwa (Hello)." That always gets them laughing :P

-During lunch, we changed the tables so that we could see each other's faces. Everybody took turns introducing themselves. Japanese names are so hard to remember!

-After school finished, I went to band for my after school activity. It sucks that I can't play any sports or anything that involves movement because my right foot is still a bit sore.

Here are some pictures that are school related:

My high school uniform (white dress shirt, gray pants, yellow shoes (to represent what grade level you are in)). The bicycle I use to go to school with as well (backpack goes in the front carriage). Raincoat since it is rainy season and my bento box in the back.

Remember when I made that locker video in Japanese class last year? Thats because Japanese people have only lockers for their shoes and a tiny one for school. I have to change shoes when I get to school.

Hallways and classrooms

Took a picture from the back of the classroom in Physics class. No projectors, all written by hand on the chalkboard.

A picture from the front of the classroom. The desks and chairs are so low that they hurt my legs :P You can also see the saxophone that I am borrowing.

And a closer look at my uniform. "ゲッツ！" ("Gets")

:~Status Update~: #2

I feel really, really BIG in Japan. Of course there are other tall people in Japan but the average height for Japanese people is pretty short. I have a huge bump on my head for banging into the ceiling and I can touch the ceilings in other places easily. When people stare at me, I don't know if its because I'm a gaijin (foreigner) or because if I'm tall :P

Enough of my rant, what do I do on a normal basis? I usually go to bed around 11pm and get up around 8am. From there I clean myself, eat breakfast, and do some chores around the house. Then I go visit some places I normally would have went in my childhood days to have fun. なつかしい〜 (Very nostalgic~). Then go shopping and maybe visit the library. When I get home I help cook dinner. Here is a picture of what a normal dinner for us would be like.

Rice, rice, rice. There is always rice in every meal. Other than that is fish and miso soup. Today's special dish was curry. Mmm~

Sometimes we go out to eat. Here we went to a Yakiniku Ya (Japanese style BBQ). 

Why is meat sooo good? :P

School started for me this past Monday (from June 15) and I will have a different entry dedicated for that.

I have job interviews this coming Tuesday and Thursday. The one on Tuesday is for a Ramen Restaurant. The one of Thursday is for a コンビニ (Corner Store). I'm really excited! More will come when those days come!

Small Trip to Tokyo

On June 13 I went to the Tokyo Olympic Center (first made in 1964) in Roppongi, Tokyo. It's roughly 50 minutes away from my house by train + walking. My mother is a teacher at ACC and she will take 11 of her students to Japan so they can study abroad. We had to go to the Olympic Center to reserve rooms for them. My first reaction to the Olympic Center that it was HUGE!

This is where the main offices of the Olympic Center is located. There is more to this place then what I took a picture of.

After we finished reserving the rooms, our stomachs started to make noises. おなかすいたよ〜 (I'm hungry~). My mom decided we would walk to Harajuku. If you don't already know, Harajuku is known for being a place for young people to show off themselves through clothing and hairstyles.

Instead of taking the train, we went through Yoyogi Park which is right next to the Olympic Center.

This place is very, very spacious and I didn't know there was a park in Tokyo. It's kind of the same thing with the Central Park in New York.

Just another picture of another part of the park. I totally look like a tourist :P

We walked for at least 20 minutes and reached Harajuku.

Takeshita Doori - Famous street that goes through Harajuku with places to go shopping. It has been used for many Japanese dramas.

There was a lot of people there since it was Saturday but I was disappointed because I didn't see that many people dressed up. Maybe because it was still early? Oh well, there was a lot to see there. There were Africans trying to promote their store's merchandise but would only approach me. I passed at least 10 different Africans and out of everybody in the street, they would only come to me. Why?? It was because they can only speak English so they were trying to spot foreigners. Dang it... I should have worn something else :P

We found a Udon Restaurant and had our lunch their. I ordered the Kitsune Udon, which is when the place a sweetened fried tofu on top of the udon. It was good :)

After we ate, we hit more clothing stores and on our way home ate crepes for desert.

My mom holding crepes. I had the caramel cheesecake with vanilla ice cream crepe. SUGAR!!! :P My mom had the chocolate ice cream with a piece of cake in it.

When I got home, I was soo tired of walking I took a nap when I went home. And that was my small trip to Tokyo.

~Side Note: I am a 16 year old male that weigh 65kg (145lbs) and I am 1.82m (6 feet) tall. A lot of clothing stores I went to did not have a size that I could fit in. Am I really that big??

Sizes: S (For tiny people), M (For small people), L (For a normal sized person), LL (My size, tall person), LLL (For bigger people)

First Video Blog!

Alright, here's what you've been waiting for. The first video blog is just a click away...

Enjoy and comment after you have finished watching! :D

I'll have it here but the password is "shue". Watch it in full screen if you can!

Shue's First Video Blog - My House from Shue on Vimeo.

P.S. My English is becoming no good anymore so don't poke fun at me too much :P

P.S.S. I have forgot to film two rooms but that will come another day...

~Side Note: After you have watched the video and if you would like to see my inspiration in the beginning of the video, go here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BI-aOWL0zbQ

(Just the 2 minutes of the beginning)

:~Status Update~: #1

Whoo~! Status Update! 

Status update is a quick entry of how I'm doing and what I will (promise) to do.

First off, I am doing great! My head no longer hurts from the jet-lag so I'm finally following the Japanese sleep schedule.

I will start school next week. My school is afraid of me carrying the swine flu so I couldn't go this week. The school I will enroll in for a month is a private school called "Kasukabe Kyoei Senior High School." 

Starting Monday I'll be Shue Ishii, second grade of high school, in class #12.　

月曜日から石井秀は高校二年の１２組になります。

Here is a link to how my school is setup. On the side bar, scroll down until you see the tab "Facilities and equipment" and go to it. Once there, click on the names to see the picture to get an idea of what it is:

http://www.excite-webtl.jp/world/english/web/?wb_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.k%2Dkyoei.ed.jp%2Fhs%2F&wb_lp=JAEN&wb_dis=2

This weekend I will make a video about my grandfather's house so that you can see where I live. 'Till then you have to wait! :D

On top of that I'll make sure to blog about what I did today. I visited the Olympic Center in Yoyogi and went to Harajuku to go eat lunch. Otanoshimi!

The real reason why I'm doing this is because my camera phone won't let me upload pictures on to the Mac I brought. (It only seems to connect with Windows) I don't want to make any blog entries without pictures or videos because those help me explain things better. So you'll just have to wait!

Shopping With Only 100 Yen Coins

Shopping for snacks and drinks is one of my favorite things about going to Japan. If you don't know this already, I am NOT shy when it comes to trying out new foods. Some of you might call my diet disgusting (like fermented soybeans or mayo on baked squid) but I love trying different things. 

So when I go out to store, I make sure I bring a couple of 100 Yen coins with me. If you go down the snack aisle in a super (a.k.a. grocery store in Japanese), snacks range from super-stretchy gummies to gums to osenbei (Japanese crackers) to my favorite --- HI CHEWS!!! There are soo many flavors and I describe them as Japanese Starbursts. If I ever shared them with you, you know the sensation. Your mouth waters from its softness and intense waves of delicious fruitiness :P

My favorite Japanese candy, Hi-Chew. The flavors shown here are Dragonfruit and Strawbery Cheesecake. The drink I am holding is my favorite drink in the world. I would drink this everyday if I could. It's called "Afternoon Milk Tea," and I LOVE IT :D Just look at my facial expression!

First Time To The "Internet Cafe"

Today I went to the Internet Cafe so I can check e-mail and update this blog. An Internet Cafe is a place where you have access to a computer with internet. "...Wow, that's so cool Leo..." :P

Hold up! It doesn't end there!

You pay by 15 minute intervals but being there for one hour costs 480 yen (roughly $5). What's so special then? Well, the place is huge... a two-story building just for entertainment. For one hour you can do whatever you want that is inside. Here's what they have:

-Approximately 40 computers and you choose what room you want to be in. There are three types of rooms for computer users. The first room is the "Mat Room" where a plastic gym mat is set on the ground and you use the computer while sitting on the ground. It's big enough to sleep in but it's a small space. The second room is the "Chair Room" where it's just a rolley business chair and the computer. The third room is the "Family Room" where it's three times bigger than the other two rooms and inside there is a computer, a T.V., and a small table.

-Rows and rows of Japanese manga to choose and read from. It's insane!

-6 Pool tables

-1 Ping-Pong table

-2 Dart-throwing areas

-Bathrooms that has toothbrush/toothpaste, razors, and soap for you to use along with the toilet.

-They provide pillows, blankets, game controllers, and even headphones.

-...AND best of all, FREE drinks! You can have however many cups of Cola or whatever you want for free! (Except alcohol I think...) I had a cup of coke and my mom made coffee. But you can go back as many times as you want.

The Drink Bar. This is where you can get all your free drinks to your liking.

The rows and rows of manga. I think there are a couple of video games on the selves as well.

The entrances of the Mat Rooms. See? They are tiny cubicles.

The size of one room. 

My mom already takes up 1/3 of the room sitting on here knees.

Here's me surfing the web.

Next to my left hand is a cup holder with my Cola in it.

First Week In Japan

Ahh, after 18 or so hours I have finally arrived at my grandfather's house (from now on I will refer my grandfather's house as 'my house'). But I slept for only an hour on the plane so I am on a jet-lag schedule. I sleep everyday at 10pm and wake up at 7am but my head still hurts from the time difference...

Here is a quick recap of what I did everyday this week:

June 7 - Left my house to go to the airport. We flew with Continental Airlines which was an okay flight. I hardly got any sleep but the airplane had individual T.V. screens that comes with 100+ movies, 20+ T.V. shows, ~30 video games, 50+ music artists to choose from so I had a very entertaining ride. There was a nice lady from Houston sitting next to me going to Bangkok but we never bothered asking each other's names which I thought was kind of weird. Because of the Quarantine Act in Japan, everybody on the plane was checked to see if they have any symptoms of the swine flu at Narita Airport. The people who were checking us wore plastic clothing, boots, and a mask to "protect" themselves. Lol! :D 

Entered my (grandfather's) house at 6pm. Dropped off all our luggage and went to a local ramen restaurant. It is a family tradition to go eat at a ramen restaurant on the first day in Japan.

Me enjoying a bowl of Miso Ramen ('Oily' style)

The taste? Uuume! (Very Good!) The REAL Japanese ramen taste.

June 8~10 - This week is officially called "Lets clean up grandpa's house day." I scrubbed off the all the gunk in the bathroom (the actually bath-room) and cleaned the restroom. Did some laundry, vacuuming, and smacking the dust off of all the futon (bed). After that my mother and I went out to finish errands such as changing our address at the city hall, shopping for food and school supplies.

パン屋さん (Bread Store)

Picked melon pan (bread) to eat in the morning.

All six original members of SMAP! 

They are soo freakishly young in this picture! 

Found this poster in a school uniform store. (That's what they are wearing)

June 10 - Paid my respects to my grandmother who passed away last year. My whole family got on bicycles and went to the cemetery. I've never actually been in one so this was my first time.

We lit essences and placed it inside. 

After that we pour clean water over the stone.

Traditionally you pour alcohol over it but that has become restricted.

Ittekimasu! (I'm leaving!)

So I am about to walk out the door now. I don't know when the next time I'll blog but I will post something once I get to Japan.

Leaving Tomorrow!

I have packed everything I need and now I will go to sleep here shortly. I will leave tomorrow morning at 5:45 am which will take me to the Houston Airport. The I get on a plane from there to Narita Airport in Tokyo at 3:30 pm Japan-time. Until I get 'home,' (my grandfather's house) it will be unexciting since I will be sitting around for many hours. I have to haul around bags through the airports, trains, and streets which will kind of suck because I have sunburns on my shoulders...

So where in Japan is my grandfather's house you ask?

First off, Japan is split into 'states' called prefectures. Tokyo is one prefecture by itself. I will be staying at a prefecture right next to Tokyo called Saitama. From my grandfather's house to the main city part of Tokyo takes about 50 minutes by train.

Below is a picture to help better describe what I am talking about:


Quick Detail: The time difference from Austin, Texas to Tokyo, Japan is about 14 hours.

Preparations...

Okay, so the past couple of days I've been getting ready for the trip. What does Leo do to prepare? Well here's a quick list of things I do:

-Buy and pack summer clothes. (8 days worth of clothing)
-Get a fresh summer hair cut. (I get it pretty short)
-Grab a couple of books I can read while on the airplane and in Japan.
-Pack smaller things like cameras, cards, contact lenses, chargers, and etc. (Not too heavy though)
-Clean the whole house especially my room. (I would like to come back to a CLEAN room)
-Purchase souvenirs for my Japanese friends.
-And most importantly, "study."

Notice how I put "study" in quotes. That's because I am pretty confident that my Japanese is good enough so I can communicate easily without misunderstanding. But that isn't saying it's perfect. Even though I've been raised by my Japanese mother, visited Japan at least once a year, AND went to Japanese school every Saturday, I am very far from perfect. To fully learn Japanese (or pretty much any other foreign language), I think you have to at least live in that foreign country for more than a year...

So anyways, moving back to "studying." I "study" by listening to Japanese music and watching Japanese animes, dramas, or movies. I know, some of you guys might be making disgusting grunting noises but that's how I do it. I normally don't watch Japanese things on a daily basis but watching does actually help. It keeps me up to date on colloquial new-generation words/phrases and makes my Japanese sound a little more natural. Whenever I have a question on what something means, I ask my mom who 99% of the time knows what it is.

Below here are the my "studying tools" (Click to make them larger) --->

J-Pop artists: (Top Left-Corner) Utada Hikaru
(Bottom Left-Corner) SMAP
(On The Right) Hirai Ken

Animes: (Top Left-Corner) Neon Genesis Evangelion
(Bottom Left) The Adventures of Hutch the Honeybee
(On The Right) Neo-Human Casshern

Dramas: (Top Left-Corner) Hana Kimi {For short}
(Bottom Left-Corner) Densha Otoko
(On The Right) Hana Yori Dango

Starting From The Beginning

*Phew* This is where it all starts.

I've never made a flown-blown blog site before so this is my first. Just to get things straight, I am a terrible writer so I will make my entries as entertaining to read as I can. I mean look at my polka-dotted background. I tried to stay away from that one solid color look (especially black) because those tend to strain my eyes more. So if you are used to those, I hope your eyes adapt to my blog.

Alright, now I need to talk about why I have made this blog site. Normally when I go somewhere new or different (like another country or film set for example), I keep a journal with me to write in. For those who worked with me on film sets, you know I like to jot down things that interest me or doodle when I'm bored. So as an addition to that I will post those random notes of what I have experienced so that everybody who cares about what I am doing can check.

So what are these blog entries going to be about exactly so you don't have to waste any more time checking if you don't want to? It's about me, Leo, going to Japan for the gazillionth time. I will go to a Japanese high school, do my own adventuring, and post it all onto this site. Pretty sweet huh? I hope so, the one fear I have right now is the swine flu that is supposedly been going around in the world. Since Japan is a densely-populated tiny island of a country, Japanese people will be scared of me because I may carry the virus that brings complete chaos to their busy lives. It may even kill Godzilla...

Anyways, I am leaving this Sunday morning which is June 7. Then I will be back in Austin sometime in the beginning of August (I don't know exactly because I keep forgetting it). So within that two month span I will try and make a new entry weekly. I can't fully promise that because my grandfather's old wooden house does not have the internet in place. That means I will have to use a school computer, find a McDonalds with wifi, or something I would like to visit, the Internet Cafe. (More details will come later)

If there is ever a time where you would like me to elaborate on something or have a question, either comment or send me something on FaceBook.

So I actually have two requests that I want you, the reader, to do. Firstly, try to comment on the entries I post. Secondly, I want you to post funny/random/crazy videos or links here or on the FaceBook group page. One of my favorite hobbies is to surf the net or even search YouTube videos to entertain me. I'll even post my top favorites on this site.

Thanks for reading all of this and I hope all you have a wonderful summer break! :D

P.S. I love taking pictures and making videos so I'll include some in my future entries as well.

The peace signs... soo Japanese~ :P
HEY! - Guess what color my shirt is!