Half Way Done With Practicum!

Half of my cultural practicum has gone by already. These two weeks have gone pretty fast, but sometimes it feels like I've been here forever. There are things I really like about being here, and some things that I'm not too fond of (the cold). I am really glad I decided to come to Shimane though. I've experienced a lot of amazing things, and I look forward to the next two weeks. That being said though, I'm ready to go back to Tokyo. I miss the city a lot...

So actually there is wireless internet I can use here! (it's some random wireless network though, so who knows are reliable it is...) But I still don't want to spend too much time online here. Things are going pretty well. I've been writing a lot in my journal (real paper!) so I'll upload some thoughts from there later!~

I have never been this cold in my own room before haha. There is a heater but i don't like to use it at night. Im wearing more layers when i sleep tonight.
Host family is really nice but its only been two days so its still awkward a bit.
Went to a castle today and some other cool stuff.
Kinda homesick for Tokyo actually...
Start working at schools on Wednesday?
Orientation on the 12th.
Once i get back to Tokyo or when i get real internet i will do a real post!
Love you all and stay warm!

At host familys in Shimane! Can't really use internet so on my phone! Be back in a month?!

First Day in Shimane!

Wow. What a long day this has been.

So yesterday I finished packing (which made me realize how much stuff I have accumulated so far and how I'm going to need another suitcase on the way home) and went out to dinner with host family. It was sad to say goodbye, even though I will only be gone for a month. After dinner I headed to Tokyo station (where we were departing from). It took some time to find the meeting place since Tokyo station is pretty big (which resulted in me having to carry my huge and heavy suitcase up some stairs...), but lucky I was on time (one of our members barely made it on the train...lol).

The train itself was pretty awesome. We all had our own mini room. And when I say mini I mean it. We had to leave our large suitcases in the lounge area. Each room had a little bed with a little pillow and blanket, a sleeping robe, as well as some small storage space. Anyone tall (or claustorphobic) would have a tough time staying in those rooms (the hallway was super small too). After getting settled, we all hung out in the lounge are for a bit, eating snacks and watching some of Thor. There was this one really funny moment when our train got really close to another train so we started waving at the people. Most ignored us or just started, but we got two people to wave back! haha.



At 11 it became bed time, so we all had to go back to our rooms. I ended up hanging out with my friend Jhanus in his room for a bit and we watched the beautiful night scenery pass us by as we talked about what we were excited for in Shimane. At around 12 I went back to my own room and tried to fall asleep, but wasn't ever really able to. It was more like resting with my eyes closed in a half awake state. At about 7 o'clock I opened my window screen to try and see the sunrise. Jhanus also knocked on my door to wake me up (we had decided to try and watch the sunrise together) and we ate breakfast and saw some pretty clouds, and an orangeish area, but never saw the sunrise.



After that I tried to nap for a bit (got in about an hour) and would wake up every so often to take pictures of the beautiful scenery (and the snow storm we passed through). At about 10am we got off the train and put our luggage in our hotel. After that we took a bus to the Izumo Shrine, which has some pretty cool history. It was snowing a lot then, but it was so pretty. The weather was pretty weird. One minute it would be almost hailing, the next it would be sunny, then back to snow. Sadly there was construction going on at the main shrine area, so we weren't able to see that :(
After the shrine we had lunch at this delicious soba place then walked to a nearby museum about the ancient history of Izumo. There this awesome little old guy decided to give me and my friend Tori a personal tour of most of the museum. This guy was just a volunteer, but new so much. I learned a lot! (too tired to write about it now haha).












After the museum we took the bus back and checked into our rooms. There I took a shower, napped, and put on pants (I had been wearing a skirt and warm leggings before...it's what I wore on the train...lol). At 6 a couple of us met to go out to eat. We walked to a nearby kaiten-zushi place (it's amazing how much snow gathers on you in like 5 minutes). Then three of us went to a nearby drug store (that looked exactly like CVS on the inside), went back to the hotel and looked at the speech I have to give tomorrow, and then went to the big shared bath and sat on a massage chair there. So tired now and sad because some how along the day I lost one of my most precious rings (one I got from my mom with a sapphire in it). Going to bed soon. Still a bit sick. But so excited for tomorrow. Get to move in with my host family!~

Packed and ready to go. In a couple of hours I'll be on an overnight train for Shimane. I'm going to miss Tokyo a lot and my host family and friends as well, but I'm so excited that I get to live and work in a different part of Japan for a month! And after that the Philippines and Korea! Can't wait!~

Samgyeopsal and Purikura

I can't believe I leave Tokyo tomorrow....I'm going to miss it here so much! I'm also pretty sad that I was sick these last few days... :(  there were a lot of people I wanted to hang out with before I left, but I guess I can see them when I get back.

The weather changed pretty drastically today (went from being in the high 40's to high 20's). It even snowed a bit in the morning! Which of course made my cold worse (since I get sick for some reason whenever the weather changes like that...) took some more medicine and rested. But I had dinner plans with friends, so I tried my best to feel better before then.

Somehow I braved the cold (outside and the one I caught) to meet Becky, Miwa, and Kota. We went to the neighborhood samgyeopsal restaurant (4th time) and ate delicious Korean food. And of course the awkwardly cute workers were there and we got to talk to them a bit. And we ended up getting free food again! It was this delicious baked egg dish. Soooo goooood. I love that place. And not just because they give us free food (although that does help. I'm curious to see how long it will go on for). We told them we would be gone for a while though, but that we would come again when we got back! One of my goals for Japan was to become a regular at a local restaurant, and I think I'm definitely accomplishing that there.

After eating we went to a cafe in Harajuku and got cake and talked some more. And then we did purikura after. So much fun! While I was hanging out I didn't feel that bad, but now that I'm back I'm a bit tired/weak...but doing laundry now and want to get started on some packing? Hopefully my laundry will dry by tomorrow...lol

Still sick enough to not want to do anything productive. But not sick enough to sleep all day. What do I do. First world problems.

Better than yesterday but still sick >_<
I hope I will be fully healed by tomorrow, still have to do some shopping for Shiname...and today is like the last day of nice weather. I want to try and get out for a little bit at least...I just want to be healthyyyyyy T_T

That good health charm I bought has not been working too well so far haha.

Literally all I've done is sleep today. Feel a bit better now, but still a bit weak :/ I guess it's just a cold, I don't really know. Kinda have a slight cough at times and somewhat stuffy nose. Just was super weak today.
 Hopefully I'll be all good tomorrow, so much to do before Shimane >_<

So there has been a stomach bug/the flu going around lately and I think I've caught it.... T_T my body has not been very healthy this month...hopefully I feel better before Shimane/in time to get ready for Shimane. I might not have much access to the internet there by the way...

Anyway, we had a group dinner at a friend's apartment last night for the people who are going to the Philippines and Korea in March! It was a lot of fun and I can't wait to travel!!!

Now I'm going to get some rest hopefully...