Sun burnt and teaching English

Last Saturday was the day of the move but what also happened on Saturday has been on the news a lot here but I'm not sure how international the news is.

There is a mountain/volcano that is quite close to where I live called Mt. Ontake. It randomly erupted while I was moving houses and it has been the cause of quite some strife here lately.

My town isn't affected but this volcano is about 20km away from home (in a straight line.)

Not so far away

There have been over 40 deaths so far and the volcano is still spitting out a lot of gas. There are a whole heap of people working to find bodies on the mountain even though it's pretty dangerous.

That's been the main thing on the news lately besides the usual typhoon warnings.

Sunday was a big day. A very long day.

I got up at 4:30 am for a karate tournament. I wasn't even fighting today!

I met Fuyuki at 5 and we drove to Sensei's house. We then drove to a town called Toyota which was in a different prefecture so it took quite a while to get there. I slept in the car.

We get to this big stadium and there are hundreds of people dressed up in the karate whites. I met this really tall guy who happened to be an English teacher so we had a good talk.

Inside the venue was chaos. This tournament was for Junior high school kids and younger so there was a lot of children running around screaming. Us non competitors were here to staff the event.

Lots of people

I was mainly going to be a time keeper but I also got to do some judging. 

But before any fighting could start, we had to do the opening ceremony. Which whilst we had to sit in seiza (kneeling) for aaages, it was quite fun.

The guys who were running the warm up made it quite a laugh. We were doing odd star jumps and all sorts of weird stretches and the kids loved it. It was great to see their nerves go away before their fights and smile instead. It made the atmosphere lift and it was cool.

I got to my court and sat down ready to do some stop watching. And I did. For about three hours.

I had a small break and then got back to it.

We even had lunch at one point. And then back to the stop watching.

I got to take some time off to watch the kids from my dojo fight which was awesome. We had some winners and a few close loses but it was a good day.

Fighters from my dojo!

 I got to be a corner judge and it was actually quite fun! I was nervous at first because it is quite an important job. Well, it's more important than time keeping I think. Also, the fights I judged were the semi finals so there was a bit of pressure.

There were some good fights and some that were hard to call. There was also a division for "pre-school girls." Which had to be the cutest thing.

But soon enough the day was nearing a close. There were just a couple of finals left and one of our fighters was going to be fighting. He unfortunately lost on a foul but would have won if that wasn't the case. But he got runner up which is still pretty impressive seeing as he was in a division of over 30 people.

Not bad!

It was all over at about 5:30 pm and we had only the closing ceremony and cleaning.

More seiza... ouch

We knelt for aages and it was quite painful. Everyone was shifting uncomfortably as the speeches droned on.

But it got fun again!

Out of nowhere, come a bunch of the higher grades with funny masks on and they read out the names of some winners from the raffles that were earlier in the day. (I didn't know there was a raffle! I would have loved to win some stuff.)

It's a little hard to see but there a bunch of people there with funny masks on doing funny things

After the clean up most people had left. I was standing around with Fuyuki and we thought some light sparring would help pass the time. So we started doing that when some higher grade came over to talk to me.

He asks me: "Do you know 'Kyokushin karate?'"

(That is my home style!)

I said: "Yes, actually, I do Kyokushin!"

He said my fight style was very 'Kyokushin-ish'. He then told Fuyuki (jokingly) to watch out because I was a spy. It was quite funny.

I was surprised that he noticed my fight style. I guess it's a bit like an accent when speaking. 

It was about six when we hit the road. I was the first one to sleep in the car. I woke up and we were at a restaurant on the hunt for ramen.

Taiwanese ramen, yum

Soon enough we were home and it was late. I went to bed at about 12 and of course there was school the next day.

School was pretty normal. I got a normal amount of study done. Kendo was good too. I got smacked on the head a couple of times but I've learnt to deal with that pain now.

Tuesday was a good day for karate. But also a painful one, as per usual.

There is only about six weeks until the all Japan tournament so it's getting pretty tough. Fuyuki and I were battling it out as we normally do and today I wanted to use my knees a bit more.

I was eyeing up his sides, looking for an opening when he slipped one of those damned punches into my ribs. It really hurt and I didn't do a very good job of hiding it. He came in, looking to punish my weakness when I panicked slightly and started throwing knees everywhere. 

He had to back off because if a knee hits true, it hurts like anything. I decided to follow him and I managed to slam one into his right side. I felt my knee make contact with his ribs and he hit the deck.

We laughed it off and got back to fighting. 

We later did some high kick training. Fuyuki and I weren't wearing gloves or shinpads so it was straight bone to hand.

We weren't kicking full power because that would be dumb. But we were trying to catch each other's kick and throw it down. This works well for a front kick but we wanted to do it for high kicks too.

Sensei said that it would be impossible if the kick was at full power.

So of course we decided to kick each other with full power. First kick:

Fuyuki lines one up and lets loose. I mucked up my hand positioning. Instead of catching the kick with both palms, I turned my right hand sideways and caught his shin on the edge of my hand. 

I thought my hand broke but it was fine. It just hurt like hell.

I had to get him back. 

So we had one last fight before class finished. I managed to nip his cheek with my foot but it wasn't enough to hurt. We traded punches and I landed a couple of good kicks on his leg. It was a pretty even fight but the call went my way.

I thought it was a draw though, my ribs still hurt a week later.

I got home and lay down to die. I had dinner and lay back down again, I was so tired.

I went to bed and enjoyed a sleep in because I was taking a day off to watch my host niece's kindergarten sports day.

We went along and watched these wee kids run relays, do funny dances, play games and all sorts. It was great fun!

My four year old host niece, running like a champ!

The adults even got to participate in this one relay. It was a quite a laugh.

All eyes on the foreigner

It was an awesome day and once the main event was over, we went out for a picnic in the nice weather.

Rice and sandwiches 

A good feed after a hard day

A good day!

We all went home and had naps until dinner time. I probably should have done something productive but my room was so warm and my bed so soft. 

I wasn't able to do kendo on Thursday on account of my sore hand so I waited at school and got some jobs done. Of course I went to karate though! I had some noodles before I went which is pretty risky. If a punch were to slip my guard then those noodles would evacuate my stomach pretty quick.

I was so hungry I decided to risk it. And everything went fine! It was good to sweat it out while fighting. Still one of the best feelings.

Friday was a good day but I was quite tired again. In P.E, my team won a game of volley ball which was pretty cool. We don't normally win so we were extra happy.

Kendo was tough. I got a really sore head but once again, I'm getting used to that. My feet hurt and my hands were raw. I was sweating like a pig but it was the best feeling to take off the helmet at the end of the session.

I got home to find Kotoha, my seven year old host niece asleep in the lounge. She promptly woke up and got her English study materials out. So after dinner I helped her with some study. It was awesome fun!

Working hard

We made paper cranes after the study

I was also casually writing a speech for this meeting on the 18th. It's gonna be in front of around a thousand people apparently and I thought I had plenty of time to write it. I've already written half of it and it's looking fine.

But we got a fax tonight (yes, people still fax here in Japan.) And it was requesting that I submit my speech by the 10th to make sure it's legit. This is a pretty official meeting it seems. 

So that's fine and all, still plenty of time. Except I got this message on the 4th. On the 6th I'm going to Okinawa on the school trip (if the typhoon doesn't wreck it first) and I get back on the 9th. That leaves me with just the weekend to get this done. Oh dear.

So I went to bed with a whole lot of stuff running through my head.

I've got to write this blog before it is too late, I've got some Rotary things to get done, I've got to write something for the paper, I've got to write this speech and memorise it, I've got to pack my bags for Okinawa too. Busy busy.

I still had a big sleep in though, can't write anything if I'm tired.

I had breakfast and went to the clinic to get my hand x-rayed, Turns out I just need to harden up as is always the case. 

We then stopped off at this wee cake shop and picked up the most amazing looking cakes that I forgot to get a photo of so you'll have to take my word. The shop ladies said my Japanese was amazing and it was nice. I am really stoked with my progress. It motivates me to study more!

I'm not gonna lie, I got home and all of my time disappeared and soon enough we were having sushi for dinner. Woops. 

After dinner I went up stairs to get some work done but I sat down on the bean bag and opened up my laptop when the door bell rang. I live on the third floor so I'm quite a ways from the front door.

But I heard the chime and the door open. Then there was Kotoha's voice and she said: "Is Brennan home??"

It was loud enough for me to hear it on the third floor. Next thing I hear is the frantic thumping of someone running up the stairs and Kotoha and her wee sister laughing and giggling. I was dragged down stairs and it was just too cute. 

They soon had to go home but it was real nice to see them. 

My host Dad gave me this look and then asked if I was still hungry. I grinned and said of course! So we went out for ramen.

The good life.

I love noodles so much that I'll even eat egg to get to them.

So at this ramen shop, they only have one flavour of ramen. Instead of picking a different flavour or something like most other shops, at this one you choose how spicy the noodles are.

They have no spice, mild, medium, spicy, 'especially spicy', 'mega spicy' and 'super mega spicy'.

If you eat the super mega spicy noodles you get your photo taken and it gets put on the wall. I looked at the wall and there were no foreigner's photos there so I decided to become the first one to do so. But this time I settled for medium noodles to gauge how strong I am.

We're gonna come here a few more times and build up my 'spicy' resistance so I can tackle the hottest they've got. 

We got home and had those cakes and watched a movie on TV. I went to bed still thinking about all the stuff I've got to get done.

So that's what I've been doing today!

And I'm pleased to have gotten this blog done, I'm all packed for Okinawa and all I've got to do is the speech for now.

I've also just found out that I'm going to be the only one do a speech at this meeting. I'm a bit nervous to be honest.

Should be right though, I've just got to smile and pretend the crowd isn't really there.

That's all I've got for now.

I'm tired but happy. I'm a lot less stressed than I have been over the last few weeks and I'm feeling good.

I'll be in Okinawa from tomorrow till Thursday and there is a big festival to go to on Friday so it's gonna be pretty busy.

Until next time!

Slightly sun burnt

Moving again

Well it looks like this has temporarily turned into a fortnightly blog but as things are calming down and working back into a routine then hopefully the blog will return back to being weekly.

I left last week's blog with a Sunday night BBQ. School the next day of course had me wake up at six in the morning and I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty tired.

School was productive but not as productive as usual because of . There wasn't any kendo this day so it was straight home. It was another one of those nights where my host family and I sat around the lounge, talking and laughing late into the night.

Tuesday was a holiday so I spent the day finishing off some reports and getting some homework done. I really love these unexpected holidays.

Wednesday was the first day of some serious tests for the Japanese students. Myself and Emma went to the school library and studied whilst everyone else worked hard on their exams. Test days are always half days so we all got to go home at lunch!

After school I went to the electrical store on the way home and picked up some new ear phones. There were some real good ones on sale so of course, I bought them. Can't pass up a bargain like that.

I got home and planned to do some work but I was distracted by my new earphones and ended up listening to music for the better half of the afternoon. It was Japanese music so I'll claim it as study.

We were sitting around the table eating dinner when someone mentioned that I was leaving on Saturday. And it really surprised me! Another two months have literally disappeared. This "time" thing never ceases to bewilder me.

Thursday was another test day. I got some real good study done in the library today! (I always say that but today was awesome!) I did a bunch of short tests on the grammar I had been learning and did pretty well. It was a great feeling to see the work paying off and it motivated me to study a bit harder so I could score better on the tests.

Karate was pretty chilled out that night. Everyone had a tournament to fight in on the weekend so we weren't allowed to smash each other. I was going to be staffing at the tournament even though I wanted to fight... (It was a tournament for junior high school students and under so it would have been a bit unfair if I had have entered.)

Nonetheless, it was a fun night. Midway through, Fuyuki turned up and we did get to smash it out. I slipped a sneaky head kick in that clopped him right on the cheek bone. It was actually a pretty hard kick, harder than I intended.

He laughed it off and said "nice one" as always but today he looked at me with steely eyes and said (jokingly) "I wont allow this!"

And then he proceeded to kick my ass six ways till Sunday. Instead of aiming through the guard, like you normally do, he aimed straight for my guard. He punched the living daylights out of my left arm and there was nothing I could do about it.

I still can't figure out how to block my arm when I usually use my arm to block. Man it hurt.

My arm swelled up a bit and I even had a wee bruise. It was a tough night.

And then Friday was upon us. It was a tough day at school because I had to do a couple of exams with the Japanese students. It wasn't too terrible though so no worries.

My host Dad came and picked me up after school because he was in the area. He had a few jobs to do in town so he strung me along with him. We stopped off at one of my host family's other rubber factories in town.

I thought they just ran one factory but it turns out they run a bunch. That's pretty cool.

Anyway, he takes me into one of those rooms that's just filled with people assembling small rubber parts. It looked like pretty mindless, tedious work but I guess someone's gotta do it. It was a big group of ladies working away and when host Dad walked into the room they all addressed him as "boss" and then they all stared at me.

It was the first real awkward moment I've had in quite a while. I sat down at a table and they all stared at me. Someone said I was handsome and they all laughed. Apparently I went bright red. It was pretty odd to have that awkward feeling again.

I thought I had completely gotten over strangers staring at me but today I was put back out of my comfort zone. It was quite refreshing to be honest!

In the car on the way home he asked me what I would like for dinner as it was my last night.

I said yaki-niku and he said "thought so!" They know me well, it seems!

So we did that! I had better put some photos in now. I didn't actually take any from Monday through Thursday so that's why there haven't been any.

Oh yea, it's gonna be a good night!
There was so much good meat, it was heaven

Intestines and regular meat first!

Heart the left and liver on the right

This rice dish was pretty nice

Pumpkin flavoured ice cream in a mini pumpkin!

The bowl was edible!

 We sat around and ate until our bellies were bloated and it was awesome. We had a beer and laughed over the good times we had had. I night I wont forget at all.

We transferred to this "cafe" (It said cafe on the sign outside)

We did some karaoke and it was a merry evening. I couldn't stop laughing the whole night. I couldn't even think about the sad concept of leaving the next day.

We got home and I was full to the brim. I seriously love yaki-niku and I could probably eat myself to death in one of those restaurants if I wasn't careful.

We all went to bed with smiles on our faces. I couldn't possibly get sad when I was so happy. It was an amazing feeling.

But then I woke up the next day and had to figure out how to tackle the problem of packing my bags. It took me a few hours to get everything organised into piles that would then be put in the bags. Organising wasn't so hard but actually getting it in the bags was a mission.

But before the actual packing, I took a lunch break.

While we ate sushi and sandwiches for lunch we watched this play on the tv and it was hilarious. Once again I found it impossible to even think sad thoughts when we were all in such high spirits.

I got back to packing and finally finished the deed. I had my Rotary suit on and I felt quite sentimental as I looked over my empty room and my luggage. I wanted to say something really deep and thought provoking because I was just in one of those moods.

I think my bags multiplied again

I looked down at the ground and was about to say something cool but instead I swore and realised I wasn't wearing any socks and I had packed them all at the bottom of my suitcase.

I just laughed at myself and got digging.

I sat there for a moment and then found those sad feelings. I looked over my room and started getting that feeling in my gut.

I moved my suitcase into the lounge and got everyone to sign it. The feelings were starting to burst their banks by now and I had to hold back tears.

I hauled the suitcase down the stairs with Kumi cheering me on (It was so heavy and it took a long time) but eventually we managed to get all of the stuff downstairs. We had a small dessert party with host Grandma and then went outside.

Host Dad had said goodbye earlier while I was packing because he had to go to work. We shook hands but I wish I had made the farewell a bit more heartfelt than it was. I didn't really know what to say so it was one of those slightly awkward goodbyes and it didn't do justice to our relationship at all.

I really do regret not saying something more than "Thanks, will see you later!"

they only has daughters so I was the first boy that they had. Host Dad would sometimes remark on the fact that I was like "the son he never had."

He really helped me out when I had some problems and he treated me as if I really was his son. It was awesome. I know I'll see him again but I'll probably be regretting the standard farewell for quite a while.

I'll just use this experience as a lesson and make sure to follow my heart's instincts next time I'm in a situation where I'm not so sure as to what to do.

But now I was saying goodbye to the rest of the family. I hugged Mum, Grandma and Kumi and then gave Grandad a handshake. We got some photos and I cried a bit. They laughed with me as we joked about how easily I am moved to tears.

Grandma and Grandad

Mum, Hitomi

Sister, Kumi

We drove to my next family and met my new Mum at the door. We moved the luggage into house and then stood outside for the one more farewell. I cried again, in front of my new family and whatever strangers that were out walking in the streets.

Kumi's boyfriend, Asahi even turned up.

Nicknamed 'Super-dry'

I gave Hitomi a hug and started choking up again. I apologised to Asahi and then gave Kumi a hug too. And then they were gone.

I wiped my eyes and entered my new home. We moved my bags to my room on THE THIRD FLOOR. There are so many stairs. I'm (hopefully) gonna have some ripper calves by the end of the next two months.

We went out for dinner tonight. My 'regular' family plus my 'extra' family all came along.

The regular contingent consists of Mum, Dad, Granddad, Grandma, Grandma's sister and two younger sisters (16 and 13?)

The extra group is Host Dad's brother's family. So that means Uncle, Auntie and two nieces. They are seven and four and pretty damn adorable.

The good thing is, I was already good friends with the whole group from way before the stay started so it's really great. 

I forgot to take pictures because I was busy talking to my new family but I can assure you, we had a great dinner of udon noodles, soba noodles, tenpura and a bunch of other traditional Japanese foods. Yum.

That's all for now, I know this is late but I should be able to write on Saturday so I will leave the events from Sunday onwards until then. 

It's been an emotional week but I feel that this move was good. I was smiling through my tears and I know for sure that I'll see the Kamakura family again before I go back to NZ and even after that I know I will see them again.

I really am so blessed to have so much loving family.

Until next time!

I wonder if I should be eating this...

 

More roller coasters! (And a whole heap of other stuff)

Last week I left the blog on a Friday afternoon which turned into a relaxing Friday night. It was nice to have a small bit of down time and prepare for a big weekend. Man, every weekend is a big weekend.

But I love it.

I slept in on Saturday morning and had a bite for brunch. It was a pretty slow day for a start, I was doing practice for a speech due on the next Monday. I went on a few errands with my host Mum and while we were out and about, I learnt about this BBQ at one of host Dad's workmate's places. 

So that became the plan for Saturday night!

We bought some meat to take along and off we went!

I was dropped off first as host Mum had some business somewhere and host Dad was probably still working.

So here I was, with a bunch of strangers and not a clue as to what to say. 

It was pretty cool. 

I did my standard little intro and shook everyone's hands and then got stuck into the food. (I got stuck in after they said I could, I wouldn't be so rude as to just eat all of their food without permission.)

We had some amazing steak followed by some odd squid things. It wasn't bad! I'm still experiencing a whole heap of new flavours all the time even though I thought I had pretty much eaten it all.

Soon enough, a few more people showed up and finally my host parents too. The food kept coming and it was an amazing night. I made some new friends and got to teach a bit of Kiwi culture.

Looking like it's gonna be a good night!

And it sure was a good night!

The food was relentless

 What a night! We talked and laughed late into the night and I was pretty exhausted by the end of it. I got home, high off the good times and went to sleep with a big smile. I'm so lucky to have so many friends.

The next day was going to be awesome. A friend who I met in Hokkaido, two years ago was coming to a prefecture near mine. She helped me learn Japanese over last year and we of course wanted to meet up. It was a little difficult organising a place to meet up because whilst we were in neighbouring prefectures, we were still pretty far away.

But we managed to figure out what to do and with an early get up and some train rides, we got to meet up! It was awesome to see a good friend after so long!

These damn photo booths make me look like a baby

Me and Shiho, in front of some big old train

All the way from Hokkaido!

It was an awesome day! It was pretty hot though but that's alright because it's been cooling down lately.

I got home after a long day of traveling and fun. It turns out we are having steak for dinner. I was pretty happy. What an awesome day. This really was the best!

Aw yea! Dinner's gonna be mean!

Can't wait for a feed!

I was shunned into the corner. ordered to eat my rice quietly.

I even got some grass for my rice!
They said if I don't eat all of my rice then I could have it tomorrow.

It was a joke but it was pretty good fun. I got to eat the steak and I probably ate the most too. It was delicious! My host family asked me to cut the steak because I was the only one with the knowledge of how to use a knife and fork. I felt pretty damn important.

We had a great laugh over the whole thing but host Mum was scared someone would take it seriously and think they weren't feeding me properly.

Monday brought with it speeches and it went 'not bad'. For the first time in a wee moment while I made a pause because I forgot a small bit of my speech. Luckily it came back to me pretty quick but I was still a tad disappointed that I had that minor hiccup.

No worries, it went down well and everyone commented on how far my Japanese has come. It was good meeting!

Dinner was almost a repeat of the previous night except with less steak.

Back in my corner

I found some bugs on the way home so I got to have them for dinner

These are actually a delicacy called "hachino-ko"  which translates to: "Bee's kids." or "Baby bees." They are pretty expensive and so tasty. They had a slight honey taste and were a bit crunchy. They went well on rice.

Bees!

So once again I wasn't actually forced into the corner to eat cold rice. It was another great night of laughs and good food. It always seems to be this way!

Tuesday was of course karate day so I was excited from six in the morning when I woke up. It was a regular day at school and I made some progress on my Japanese. I have a new plan for learning! I thought it would be cool to read comics in Japanese and get to know a bunch of new vocabulary as I went along.

I was looking forward to buying some comics after school and I did just that! 

Because it's quite far to go from school to home and then back to karate, I stay at my previous host family's house and then go. It's good because it's convenient and I get to catch up with my family!

The clouds were pretty spectacular on the way home
These are called "Hitsuji-gumo" in Japanese, literally "Sheep clouds"

This time I brought Emma along, the new exchange student in Gero. We stopped over at the Nunome house and had a good talk. I even got to meet their eldest daughter who was in university when I was staying with them. So it was great to actually get to meet her!

Before we went to karate we stopped off at the local comic shop and got my "text books." Awesome.

Karate was great! Fuyuki and I battled it out for the night and both walked away buggered. I think it was a draw which is cool because that means I didn't get beaten up too badly.

Fast forwarding to the weekend:

Saturday was essentially a free day, with no real plans or jobs to get done. I did have a karate thing on but that was from six o clock in the evening. So I got to have a nice sleep in and then enjoy the hot weather which is starting to become rare. It's still warm but it's often quite chilly in the mornings nowadays.

I got my haircut at host Grandad's shop (so it was free !) He asked if I wanted a shave and I said sure, why not? It turns out I've got soft skin or something because I was cut up pretty badly after the trim. No worries, it stung a little but I had the smoothest face!

It felt worse than it looked haha

 Then host Mum and I thought it would be cool to go to the local temple and have a look around. It sure was cool. It was amazing.

There were all these little statues all over the place and a few bigger ones too

I think this is where the magic happens

 We got to meet a monk and it was pretty surreal. He had this sort of calm aura about him and he was pretty nice to talk to. We talked for ages to the lady who was attending the temple, I don't know how she fits into the whole scheme of the temple but she was pretty nice too. She gave me a bead bracelet for free and that was awesome.

For dinner, we went out for udon noodles. There was this shop on the way to where I was going for karate and apparently they have these big dishes. Host Mum told me that she can't normally eat it all so I took it as a challenge.

I can eat a fair bit so I was keen as for a big lot of noodles.

Neat looking shop

Tenpura and udon. Maybe I can't eat all of this...

I gave it my all. But it was just too much. I ate all of the tenpura and a decent amount of noodles but man, there was just too much. I felt like I was going to pop and I had to be at karate in a few hours. Luckily today's session was to be a referee workshop.

Hopefully not too much moving about because I was already having trouble standing up.

I got to Sensei's house and met up with a few others from our dojo. Off we went to learn how to be good refs.

We drove to a nearby-ish town called "Ena" where we met up with a whole heap of black belts. We did some learning and because it was actually pretty fun, time flew by and soon enough we were on our way back home.

It was about 11 when I got back home. And it was straight to bed because we had a 3:00 AM get up the next day!

We were going to "Fuji-Q Highland" amusement park. It was promising to be a good day, especially since my host family had been amping it up since I first arrived at their house. They had told me that Fuji-Q houses the scariest roller coasters in Japan.

So up we got, and off we went! We left at about 4 in the morning and arrived at about 7:30 - 8:00 am. Halfway there, host Dad and I decided we should stop off for breakfast. So whilst the girls were asleep in the car we dashed inside a roadside station for a bite to eat.

We didn't think it was very smart to eat too much before the roller coasters so we looked around for something light.

Well.

We looked for something light but ended up getting a big bowl of ramen each. I also had some fried chicken because I'm not very smart.

A light breakfast

We ate so fast that we got pretty bloated. It looked as though I had swallowed all the noodles at once and the bowl as well. I had the biggest belly and it was pretty gross. We had a good laugh over it though.

The girls laughed at us when we got back to the car because of how stupid we were. "I hope none of this comes back up" I thought.

We arrived to find the park not open yet. And a huge line of people all waiting for the park to open.

We joined the line and made it up to the ticket place. Everyone was getting checked through and sprinting to their favourite ride so they could beat the lines.

We decided to run straight for the worlds steepest roller coaster.

It's legit

It stops at the top and then drops down at a 121 degree angle. Oh dear

We managed to get there pretty quick and only waited for 15 minutes. We were sitting in the car, ready to go when it started moving slowly. It started off indoors so it was quite dark.

It was pitch black and I was waiting for it to go outside and start but I almost had a heart attack when the ground disappeared from underneath us and we dropped, sped and spun this way and that before we even got outside. I couldn't see a thing yet I knew I was upside down and moving fast.

We got outside and zipped around this crazy trick before we suddenly stopped in front of this wall. Except it wasn't a wall, it was the track!

I looked to my left, Kumi and my host Mum were smiling and laughing because of the sheer awesomeness of this ride but to the far left, it looked as though host Dad was gonna die. We all looked at him and he looked back with fear in his eyes and we all fell into hysterics.

It was hilarious! But then we were being dragged up at a 90 degree angle and it took hours. At least it felt like that. It was insane. We got to the top and it stopped before dropping us. Kumi and I managed to get a cool pose in before we died.

I blinked, damnit! I'll have to ride it again

Then it dropped and oh my god it was crazy. The track went back on itself and it was amazing. I love roller coasters.

We ran next to the fastest ride in the park. The "Dodonpa". It was supposedly going to shoot us away at 172 kmph. I was pretty excited.

Host Dad was not. After we got off the first ride he said:

"That's it. I'm done, going home!" 

But of course we got him on this ride. We waited for around an 45 minutes this time. It seemed to take ages but we got there eventually. 

Kumi was pretty scared this time. I asked her if she was going to put her arms in the air but she said that was impossible, this thing is too fast.

I didn't really believe her.

There was a countdown before we went flying. I got my arms ready to throw in the air but the car went from zero to 172 just like that. My arms were pinned to my chest and I couldn't even scream. 

The ride zoomed by so fast but it was so exhilarating. We planned a cool pose before we got on and this time it worked out pretty well.

Host Dad looks like he's crying

We had lunch next. I got a couple of Turkish kebabs and they were pretty delicious. I also got a photo with one of the park mascots who I felt pretty sorry for.

Bugger wearing that costume all day, it's way too hot!

Next, my host Mum and I lined up for another record holding ride.

Most of this is going to be done upside down

And it was. After we waited for three hours in the line. It took forever! We were waiting three hours for a two minute ride.

But eventually, we got there. We were definitely in Japan, there were students studying as they waited! The last thing on my mind when I'm waiting to get on a roller coaster is study. The work ethic is pretty damn awesome.

Host Mum and I lined up, ready to sit on this odd contraption. It didn't look like a conventional roller coaster. It had seats which rotated so even if the track was the right way up, you'd probably be upside down.

We got strapped in and man it was tight. The ride started backwards. We were facing the wrong way? Next thing, our feet were in the air. We started upside down. It was pretty crazy.

Over the next minutes we were thrown this way and that, upside down, right side up, downup rightside, I just didn't even know. At one point I thought I was going to fall out of my seat and to my death but as soon as I thought that we were spinning in a different direction.

It was a pretty amazing ride. 

I don't know what to say about this

Off we went, in search of more fun. We rode the teacups!

Host Mum and Dad

Kumi and I

Kumi made me ride one of those viking ships that swings back and forth, doing horrible things to your stomach. This one did full revolutions though so my guts were not impressed.

Once that was over, we went to see how the last big ride of the park was looking. It was a big, exciting looking roller coaster with a line bigger than that of the previous one. Another three hours for a two minute ride? 

Nah, that's a bit too much. A total of six hours in lines is about the equivalent to a whole school day. Except it would be spent standing in a line.

We decided to pick up some souvenirs and go home.

It was a thrilling day!

 On the way home we stopped off at a Taiwanese restaurant where I ate more than I should have. I must of eaten my own body weight's worth of fried rice and then some. It wasn't very smart but it tasted great.

I got home and wrote up some more stuff for uni. It was a little stressful so after a while I decided to call it a day and went to bed.

I woke up at around three in the morning and couldn't get back to sleep so I just lay in bed, waiting for the 5:30 am alarm. We were going to Nagoya today! (Monday was a holiday so of course us exchange students made plans.)

Finally we would get to be the real seniors and show the newbies around Nagoya. And it was awesome!

The weather was good and so was the company.

The Gero-Takayama contingent, Emma and Victoria, plus myself on arrival at the station

 Victoria, from Norway also writes a blog, it's cool to see a different perspective on the exchange so if you're interested I recommend checking out her site:

 www.cattyandvain.com

Emma also does a video blog on youtube so have a look at that too!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAwaif_OwoT-05UKki4wsKg

We had some time to kill before the other exchange students arrived so we went and found a starbucks for a coffee. I was pretty tired from the big weekend already and I guess I was a little bit down. But when I bought my drink, the lady who made my coffee told me I have a lovely smile and it really made my day.

I wanted to talk to the lady so I asked her what it was like to work in Suta-ba (Japanese for Starbucks) and she said it was fun. She gave me some compliment that sort of bounced off me, it's pretty bad to say but I've become a bit desensitized to the usual "your Japanese is great!" so when I heard, "Mr, you have a lovely smile" I was taken aback and had to ask: "What did you say?"

I got all flustered and couldn't even reply properly, it really did make my day.

A look over Nagoya from one of the station towers at about 9:30 in the morning

Sore feet so Jake gave me a ride!

Purikura, making us all look like dolls

We found Mario

Found some babes too

We got kebabs and showed the newbies around town and it was so cool. We wondered if our seniors felt as we did now. We remembered looking up to the seniors with this awe and respect, they could speak Japanese, they knew the city backwards and all these great things.

On our way back to the station at the end of the day, I thought I recognised a guy who was walking in the opposite direction from us. I swear I had seen this guy before. I turned around as we walked past and so did he. It turns out I met him at the Gero festival from a while back! We high fived and went back to our own paths. It was pretty awesome.

I really enjoyed the day but I was buggered by the time I got home. So off to bed in preparation for school the next day.

School was normal, I got some study done and read some comics. (That counts as study too!)

Karate today!!

Emma and I went back to the Nunome's and had a small feed of takoyaki, little dumpling like things with octopus in them. Yum! Naoko, another one of the sisters who wasn't there when I was staying with, (shes been in the blog once or twice) had just come back from a small holiday in France. 

And she brought back some real good salami, something you can't find in Japan.

We got a photo and set off on our way in search of a fight.

I heard Naoko speak English for the first time today, I didn't know she could!
Turns out she's fluent in English, French and Japanese. Too cool

At karate we fought as per usual. It wasn't until the last fight that Fuyuki and I could have our proper showdown.

And it was awesome.

Sensei yells at us and tells us this is the last fight for the night. Everyone else was to stand back and watch.

Gloves off. One minute. Full power.

Go!

We smashed into each other and very quickly Fuyuki hooked me a good one in the ribs, as he always seems to do. I got him pretty good in the legs but from his reaction it seems he got the better out of small trade. 

I pushed forwards, determined not to walk backwards. I couldn't find an opening so I made a few dummy hits and then threw my leg up in the air for an axe kick. I brought it down and it landed true! I felt a little guilty for doing it though, it's not nice having a sweaty foot land on your nose and slide down your face.

He was right back to it though and got me good again with his punches.

We stood there for maybe 10 seconds and just traded hits. We were trying to block and retaliate to each other's shots but we just ended up hitting one another with total disregard to what we were receiving.

We split away from each other and I went straight back in with a barrage of punches. I backed off for a second and then so did Fuyuki. 

He said he couldn't do it and he lay down on the ground. We had a good laugh when he said he almost lost his dinner during our punch trade.

It was a good night. I'm sure he'll deck me next time.

I really shouldn't have been at karate because I had a cold but I couldn't possibly miss a session. I payed for it the next day when I woke up dead. I had to take the day off and I just stayed in bed all day. I was pretty beat.

But I was all keen for dinner!

I've forgotten what it's called but the noodles are like a mix between udon and mochi

Mochi is like a Japanese rice cake, they're quite soft and a bit chewy. This dish was amazing. It was spicy and full of flavour. 

School on Thursday was good. I'm studying for the next JLPT test and I learnt some new grammar for the first time in a long time which was cool as. I can understand most of what I here nowadays but there is obviously still a lot of vocabulary that I don't know.

And every now and then, there is some grammar that totally loses me. Because I've got the basic stuff down, I need to learn the harder stuff that isn't used as often so it's quite hard to remember because I don't get to use it very much.

It's still great fun though!

I didn't go to karate on Thursday because we had an official welcoming dinner for Emma at that Italian restaurant where I went with Nunome-Host Mum. The place where we were the very first customers!

It was pretty nostalgic even though it wasn't all that long ago when I was being welcomed in.

All of Emma's future host families came to the dinner and it turns out we have all of the same hosts except one. My last host family will be different to Emma's last but other than that, it was like a big family reunion for me!

I got to sit beside the Kaneyama family; my second hosts. Their daughter, Mayuko is in New Zealand at the moment on exchange. I sat beside my host Mum and we had a great catch up.

It was an awesome night full of awesome food (i ate too much again) and awesome people. I talked to the boss about the next meeting and he told me to prepare a three to four minute speech.

I asked: "Just four minutes? Really?"

He told me that I have an allocated time slot at the meeting and this time it would be in front of over a thousand people. 

Something to look forward to, I guess! The meeting is on October the 18th, so there is plenty of time to get this done. It's gonna have to be my best speech yet and here's hoping for no damn stutters or memory failures. 

Friday brought with it some more good study, I got through some really hard grammar and had a good time in P.E. Well, it was good until I dived for the ball (volley ball) and had rebound into my face. Then it went from good to funny and slightly painful. 

Saturday started off as a lazy day but would turn into one of the best weekends.

I woke up at 10:30 AM and started my usual routine of writing stuff. Blog, uni, reports and a whole heap of other stuff. We had a really nice curry for lunch and host Dad must have eaten about three people's worth because his plate was massive.

But soon enough it was time for another BBQ. This time I was going back to the Kaneyama's, my 2nd host family.

My old host Dad came and picked me up and it felt just like home. We listened to the same jazz that he always listens to and I couldn't help but smile like an idiot.

We got back home in the town of Kanayama. (Yes, that's the biggest pain, the Kaneyama family lives in Kanayama. So many misunderstandings have become of this.)

The house looked just the same as it always did from the outside. I walked through the back door and said: "Tadaima!" Which pretty much means "I'm home!"

This is always returned with "Okaerinasai!" Which is "Welcome back!"

My host Mum looked at me in the doorway and said:

"It's not weird at all, just like old!"

I sat down in the lounge and we all laughed, it really was like old. I felt at home, it was so nice. The lounge had been re-arranged a bit but it was just as I remembered. My name was still on the doorway from when I left about four months ago.

The day I left. From left to right is:
Mayuko (now in NZ) Yukiko (host Mum) Saori (with baby bump) Myself (minus some badges) and Yuuki (Host Dad isn't in the photo)

It was only host Mum and Dad home at the moment but soon enough, Saori came back. When I stayed here, Saori was pregnant and always had this big baby bump. But when she came through the door there wasn't any bump. 

It was a bit odd to see her without it! I soon met Sona, her daughter.

Sona is three months old

It was like she remembered my voice!

With the new Mum and Dad

So soon enough, everyone turned up for dinner. It was too cold to do a BBQ outside so we set up the fry pans and got to work inside.

And it was an amazing night.

Start of the night

 Mum had made that salad I love and I'm pretty sure I ate most of it! There was so much meat, there was even sushi at one point! I ate so much, I was stuffed! It was just so awesome to be back with these guys, I can't really express it in words properly. It was magic.

Went over the road, met some friends and ate some more food.

We ate and talked and laughed until about midnight when it was time to go to bed. It was the merriest of nights.

I talked so much with my family and told them so many stories. I hadn't talked to them for only four months but it felt like so much had happened since then. It really was an amazing night. 

I went up to my room and it was just like home. I slept like a baby and got up at around 9:30 am.

I went downstairs and found this:

Just when I thought she couldn't get any cuter!

 I had breakfast and chatted away to everyone. Everyone was working around the house so I was the babysitter!

Wee Sona fell asleep in my arms at one point and I think I had a moment. I wish I could take the baby home with me haha!

We soon decided that we should do something with the day so off we went for a drive, Mum, Dad, Saori, Sona and I.

I don't know if we knew where we were going but we soon decided to go to this place called "Bokka no Sato" which is like a big open garden/market/farm/beautiful place near a town called Gujo in the Gifu province.

Some of us slept in the car because it was a bit of a long drive but we were all ready to go once we got there. It was hot and the sun was shining. It was a beaut day!

That's host Dad, with his back to the camera, I couldn't get a photo with him!

There was some clown doing something over there

There was this big little church

It was a pretty stunning place

Saori and I

I rode a horse! I was just eating horse meat a few weeks ago so I felt a tad guilty haha

 There were also some sheep which we of course had to go and pet because I'm from NZ and it was so nostalgic. They asked if it felt like home when I was petting the sheep and it sure did.

Saori, Myself and Host Mum

We had burgers for lunch and ice creams for afternoon tea. It was awesome.

We were walking around the souvenir shop and I was carrying Sona and I saw this lady who was also carrying a baby. She looked at me and smiled but the look was like the one you give to other foreigners in Japan. The "We're in the same boat" look. I just rolled with it and pretended Sona was my kid. We had a good laugh about it though because it did look that way.

They dropped me back off home and it turns out we were having a BBQ for dinner!

I hugged the Kaneyama's goodbye and sat down, slightly tired but ready for another night of good food.

Yuuuum

yum yum

It was a slightly chilly night, but a sweat shirt fixed that

l

It looks like he's about to feed me but he actually just rubbed the hot steak over my face, I got to eat it after so no worries

We went to bed late after a good night. And that was the end of the week. I will be moving families again on Saturday.

Time flies so fast it's actually unbelievable.

I've had so much on lately and it's been a bit stressful but I'm still loving it more than anything. I look forward to becoming a part of a new family but I'm not looking forward to moving away from this one.

I know now that I haven't left any of the families I've been with but rather just moved away, much like what I've done by coming from NZ to Japan. I haven't been removed from any families, I'm just away. 

I have so much family now, so many Mums and Dads, a couple of brothers and a whole heap of sisters. There's even a niece in there now. It's amazing. I love them all. 

If you've stuck with it and read this far, thanks! I'm sorry this is late again, I feel pretty bad about not getting it done. 

I've got some reports to write after this so I'd best finish it here. 

Until next time!

I really can't get over this wee girl