I started taking Japanese classes in my school. I have two or three hours  of Japanese a day, which is very helpful to grasping the language. In my  school are two other exchange students Peter from Finland and Henrik from  Germany. Even though we are in the same school we have no classes together.  We do however have the daily hours of Japanese with each other. As I am sure  everyone has heard by now, the amount of time you spend studying in your  home country is irrelevant to how much of the language you will learn  because two weeks in and you have learned more than you could have in months  of practice on your own. I am not saying it is a waste of time, but I do  find it amusing. This of course is also the case with me. A good example of  this is that two short-term exchange students visited our school from  Australia. They shared our Japanese class with us for two weeks. They had studied Japanese four years in Australia prior to coming. When we heard this  we were highly intimidated and our confidence in our Japanese dwindled.  However when we met the exchange students we realized that their Japanese  was not much better than ours. This of course means our Japanese is good not  the opposite. This goes to show that living two months in a country can do  more for your language than four years in a classroom with your teacher  being mainly a book.

I have had no serious experience with homesickness. I did however miss Miami when I saw “Gone in 60 Seconds”. For those who don’t know the movie,  it deals with cars. It deals with really nice cars that are very common in  Miami. I missed driving and being on the right side of the road. This may  not sound like such a major deal, but I believe it might affect the thinking  process of the right and left sides of the brain. I have not done much traveling since I have been here because my first host family seemed to be constantly busy. I am not one to complain, but I was  usually alone in the house. My first host family did not offer to take me  anywhere, although we did go to a restaurant or two in the time I was there.  I never felt like I was a part of that family. I do not mind though. I take  it as experience. That is the positive view of it. You see, a long time ago  I learned a lesson from a good friend of mine. Every time I had problems in  my life she would turn to me and say, “It could be worse…” Half joking half  serious, but in the end she inspired a chain of different viewpoints any  time a problem arose from then on. So, I kept thinking it could be worse so  be happy with what I have. Well, I have changed host families and I am now  in my second host family. I really like this present host family. They  immediately tried to make me feel like a part of the family and not just  some guy who happens to live in their house. I felt more at home in the  first hour than I managed to feel in all three months I was in the other  house.

The places I have been are Owaji Island and Nara. I went to Owaji Island  with a member of Rotary on his boat. We took a two-hour boat ride just to go  to a Barbeque on the island. Then another two hours back. I do not mind the  boat ride because it was a very nice boat. Also the sea was pretty choppy  that day so the boat did a lot of jumping. I like that. I think all boat  rides are pretty much boring with nothing to do but calm your spirit over  the serene ocean. Even that gets boring after while though. So I prefer  movie style action in my boat rides. This may be a direct consequence of me  watching too many action movies growing up as a kid. Whatever the reason may  be, I like excitement in all aspects of life. Even studying something can be  exciting as long as it is something you like. Well, enough side tracking and  back to the subject at hand. I also want to Nara a city with many old  Japanese temples and a great armor and weapons museum. I would like to make  a side note that Nara is a Deer magnet. The minute you get to Nara you see  deer everywhere. When I say everywhere I mean EVERYWHERE. I don’t mean  behind fences or anything, I mean everywhere. I have never given too much  thought to deer before except of course Bambi, but I am sure we all gave  some thought to Bambi as children. I have thought that they were nice  looking creatures and cute. That’s all I ever thought about them. I now have  something I am adding to the list, creepy. For the first time in my life I  find deer creepy. They seem to observe you and its almost as if they are  following you. This may be an over-paranoid conclusion brought by drinking  too much coffee that day, but either way it is a thought that will remain in  my mind. I have not really gone anywhere else, but my new host family has  asked me if there is anywhere I wish to go. Can you believe it? Now that I have the opportunity I cannot figure out a place I really want to go. Well,  I will write more on that when it comes in.

Next on my agenda is weather. Well what can I say? It is cold. It is very  cold. I know it is not as cold as it is for Patrick (I am glad we ended up  in our present positions and not reversed). I am not used to seeing my  breath every morning. I also have to wear as many clothes as possible when I  go out at night. I decided to be brave one night and wear a light jacket. I  also learned that night that there is a thin line between bravery and  stupidity. The cold did not come gradually to my city. It was just cold one  morning and it has not been warm since. I find that strange, but once again  I am marking it down to learning.

The last thing I will write about is the little things that have happened  to me. For instance, I was running to get to class and rushing up the  stairs. Running and jumping up the stairs to save time my left foot clipped  the edge of a stair. My body changed direction from going upward to going  forward. I went straight into a stair with the full point of impact on my  right knee on the edge of a stair. It was a rather loud thud and it echoed  vibrantly through the seven-floor staircase. Leave it to me to notice  something like that at a moment like that. Either way, I stood up and  realized that I couldn’t stand up. I came to this realization while gravity  was pulling me back to the ground and my knee sent the pain messages to my  brain. I managed to make it to class figuring it was a slight bruise and I  would be fine by the end of the day. My teacher noticed my limping (which  was not hard to miss) and asked what was wrong. I of course said nothing and  I was fine. I believe that may have been my pride talking and not me. He  asked to see my knee so I lifted my pant leg. I was pretty shocked to see it  black so needless to say he was pretty amazed too. I was taken to the  hospital where they took x-rays of my knee. The Doctor told me that I had  “very beautiful bones” he also said I was very lucky to have such bones  because they did not break. He did however have to take blood from my knee  in order to prevent it from rotting there. This meant a shot. I dislike  needles. I really dislike needles. I also learned something then. No matter  where you go in the world there are some things that transcend all cultures.  I realized this when the doctor told me it would not hurt and that it was  “just like a mosquito bite”. The same thing I have been told my entire life.  Which leads me to a theory that all doctors are bitten by huge robot  mosquito as children and hence have the misconception that all mosquito  bites hurt that much. This is of course just a theory, I could be wrong.  

Which leads me to another thing I need to write. There is no sarcasm here. The little that does exist here is mainly  imported. It is universally true that almost nothing sounds well translated  directly, but sarcasm never translates well. It is even worse here because  sarcasm does not exist here. So much of my humor is lost here. That might  not be such a bas thing though because they might thing I’m too Kimio.  That’s Japanese for strange. (As a side note I wish to say that I just had  to put that there because every other exchange students seems to think it is  nifty to put the language they are learning into their reports and letters,  and who am I to argue with reason?)

Either way, I am appreciating a piece of advice that my old Interact sponsor  and now Rotarian Mrs. Wendy Christopher told me. She had said that if I find  the language hard to just communicate through my sense of humor. Well, I did  not find the language too hard, but I still use my sense of humor to  communicate things, which cannot be said. A great piece of advice, which I  am thankful for.

Well, I will write my next report sooner than it took me to write and send  this one. I will also write a small article soon. Expect the article before  the report. I will continue to strive and make the best of everything. No  matter what. After all, “it could be worse”. As my friend would have said  “the plane could have crashed on the way there”. So, I think I’ll just stick  with my present state of things and not worry about what could have  happened.

Reporting from my side of the planet,
Rol
Chronos

P.S. yes, I said “my” side of the planet.

P.P.S. “Think great, be great.”