Y.M.C.A. International School

When I lived in Japan, the apartment complex I lived at was right across the Y.M.C.A. There were two Y.M.C.A. buildings, one is just a regular Y.M.C.A., but the other is an International school. The reason we lived so close to it is because my parents were planning on putting us in the school, but it only went up to 6th grade and my brother was in 7th grade. So we home-schooled.

The Y.M.C.A. International School is a huge building for children in grades K-6th. Most of the kids who attend the school are Japanese, and are being taught English. One of my mom's friends (a lady who got us settled in Japan) works there as a teacher. She also is a pastor's wife for a church that we have attended before.

I think that teaching little kids English that speak Japanese is a wonderful idea. I met a little girl at a park near our house one day. Her name is Lina. She is 7 years old and knows how to speak English, Japanese, and Chinese! Every time I meet a little kid who speaks English they say the go to the Y.M.C.A.

Most of the kids in Japan know how to speak a different language. There is this one little boy who's name is Song Min Oh and he is 7 years old. My brother and I have been helping him with his English. He speaks English, Japanese, and Korean! His mother speaks English, Japanese, Korean, and Iraqi. I think it's just amazing how these people can remember all of those words. I know bits and pieces of a lot of different languages but not the whole language! These people here are amazing.

Hannah Montana

In Japan, there is barely any "good" television for me to watch on our Japanese cable. So the show I watch the most was Hannah Montana, in Japanese. I watched it almost every day, even though I really don't like that show. It was the same actors and same episodes, just different voice. They cut off the original voices that are in English and put in Japanese voices. Well, the Japanese voice did not match the way the actor's and actress's mouths moved. It was so funny to watch. I also watched other American/Japanese television shows like the Suite Life of Zack and Cody. Well they talk really fast in their shows so it was the goofiest looking thing having them put Japanese voices in. I don't know why they just keep it the way it is and add Japanese subtitles!

Flowers, flowers, and more FLOWERS!

There are so many flowers in Japan! The only wild life here is penguins and the occasional fish in ponds but there are so many beautiful flowers here. My brother wants to be a photographer when he gets older and he got great pictures of the beautiful roses and tulips at our apartment.

My friend Miyu

This is a picture of me (in middle) at my friend, Miyu's, school.


Miyu is one of my favorite memories of my time in Japan. She is 13 years old and speaks English and Chinese. Earlier in my stay at Japan I got to go to her school for a whole day. It's very different than any school I have ever been to. They start off by having a ton of extra time to play before the teacher comes in the room, even then they speak out of turn. We went to math, science, English, and other classes. We also had PE where the boys and girls split up. The boys went out and played soccer on this huge field and the girls played basketball in the gym. They barely eat anything for lunch, just a little bit of rice and meat and than they want to go play something again.

After the first trip to her school, a little months later I got to go spend time at her house. I ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner there. One thing that they said that all Japanese house have are a rice cooker, that is filled with hot rice all day, and a water heater to make tea. For breakfast I ate a cup of tea, a bowl of rice, and a lot of Japanese cake which is very sweet. Me and Miyu played many Japanese games which were very fun. They were kind of like chess. And we played with her dogs. We were at her grandma's house at the time, and her grandma doesn't speak English. So for dinner we made Japanese spaghetti. Well, I normally am not a picky eater but I was not about to eat what they made for dinner. They put a ton of fish eggs mixed in mayonnaise in the noodles. They didn't use regular spaghetti sauce. And we had rice. But them made me a special bowl without fish eggs that was noodles and vegetables, it was pretty good. They also ate fish heads. But I had a really great time and I learned how the Japanese live!

Cosplay

Japanese teens dressed up in Cosplay outfits.








Cosplay is short for costume play. It's when Japanese teenagers dress up in outfits from anime, video games, and fantasy movies. Most of the cosplay costumes look like ones worn on Halloween but are worn throughout the year in Japan.

A popular place to see teens in cosplay outfits is on Harajuku St., which is where most of the costumes are sold.

Cosplay started when young Japanese went to low-budget clothing stores and bought odd clothing and wore them. Then it was made into a fashion, high design stores started selling these costumes all over Japan. There are even cosplay magazines.

When going down Harajuku St. (at Omoto-sando station) you see many photographers taking pictures of cosplay girls.

The best thing about cosplay in Japan is that fashion starts there!

Malls in Japan

The malls in Japan are a lot different than what I am used to in America. The average mall is about three to seven floors high.

The mall that was closest to us is called Seiyu. It is a huge mall that has groceries, clothes, gifts, etc., and whenever you go to one of these mall and there is something you want to buy, you have to pay on each floor. If you try to bring something you want to buy with you up to a different floor, they will stop you and asked you to pay on that floor.

They have escalators for all of the malls, and the bottom floor normally consists of groceries. If you enter a mall right when it opens, all of the sales clerks will be standing in front of their section and will bow to you when you go by. It's so different because before Japan, I never had anybody bow to me before! This is kind of sad, but my brother and I always used to play a game how we'd go to the mall early and try to run through it and pass the clerks without getting bowed at.
The top floor normally has a variety of traditional Japanese Restaurants. I've only eaten at an actual tradition Japanese food place and it was very interesting. I ate squid, octopus, and tons of sashimi.

In the malls everyone is very kind and patient. They will bow to you after you make a purchase and are just very kind. In America, most of the time the people working at the malls are only doing it for the money!

"L's" in Japan?

In Japan and in Japanese they cannot pronounce "l's". Even in English writing (not Japanese characters) their words are spelled with "r's" instead of "l's". If you get a Japanese language book you will see that not once there is the use of L. Whenever I talk to one of my English speaking friends who is Japanese they say words like "rove" instead of love and "rean" instead of lean. They just cannot pronounce it. It is so funny listening because that is not how I am used to hearing people talking. All of the restaurants that have "l's" in them in America are pronounced with "r's" in Japan. Like a popular one, Red Lobster. They actually had one of those near where my family lived. They pronounce it Red Robster in Japan!