学校のやすみ (School holidays)

Hi everyone,

It's been school holidays for the last few days and i've done heaps(!) of stuff. I'll start from the 20th....

Sunday, September 20

Today I went sightseeing with my host parents. We left Iwamura at about 2pm and drove about 30 mins to 小里川ダム (Origawa Dam). Origawa Dam a huge dam between Iwamura and Akechi, and a really popular tourist spot (apparently). There was a live band and heaps of tourist shop - a really nice place. The landmark attraction, though, was the massive water-mill surrounded by water fountains.

Monday, September 21

Today i went to so many places it was hard to take it all in! First, my host father and I drove to the top of a mountain about 20 mins from Iwamura. It was a really windy, narrow (only one car could fit at a time which led to some scary 'near misses') road that seemed to go on for ever. It was worth the wait though. At the top was a spectacular lookout over Iwamura and the surrounding cities. There was also a temple and probably the tallest tree i've ever seen!

Around the other side of the mountain there were 10-15 giant windmills that were part of an electricity plant. We then followed the track down the mountain and came to a river.

After lunch (天丼 - tempura on rice),　my host father took me to Jibuzaka Plateu. It was amazing! In winter it is a ski resort, but during summer it is a garden and putt-putt golf course. The photos describe this place better than i can...

Tuesday, September 22 (Happy Birthday Mum!)

Today I met Alex and his host family in Nagoya. I had so much fun! We watched Nagoya Grampus 8 train, got Josh Kennedy's signature, went to the Toyota Museum (apparently i saw the "car of the future") and had a boat tour of Enakyo.

Alex's host family were really nice. His host mother spoke really good English and they were all very kind to me. As well as meeting his HF, it was good to catch up and compare our experiences so far. I'm hoping that some time in December-January i can go to Sanda and meet up with some of my old friends there. Fingers crossed...

Anyway, i'd like to write a lot more but i'm really tired. I'll try and write some more as soon as i can.

Until next time...

September 19th

Hi everyone,

Photo: Iwamura

Just writing to say i'm having an AWESOME time here. My host family live in 岩村 (Iwamura) in the Gifu prefecture. My school is great - everyone has been so supportive and the teachers try their best to include me in the lessons :). I'm really enjoying English, Shodo and Maths! In Shodo we made a はんこ　(personal seal) and have been practising lots of　kanji characters. I got 10% in the first maths test (on my first day!) because i could barely understand it!

I've also joined the soccer club and have been doing some seriously hard drills and learning loads! I'll try and post some more photos soon...

Photo: 中津高校　My host school

Last night, my host father took me to the a community hall to meet his friends. They were all really friendly and tried to speak English (which was really funny). One of them has offered to teach me to play the しょう　- a tradtitional Japanese panpipe-like instrument. It sounded so good when he played it. I can't wait to learn!!

Photo: Me playing the しょう

Today my host family took me to まごめ(Magome) - a really old town about 20 mins from the school. There were so many people there - it must be a really popular place! (Photo below)

My Japanese is improving heaps - i've started a vocabulary book for the words i hear a lot at school,　have bought myself a kanji workbook (小学一年生 hahahaha) and have almost finished Hai. But, i reckon my Japanese has improved most from reading and replying to the several txt-emails i receive from my classmates daily :)

I'd like to write more but the internet here is very slow and i don't want to use up all of my host family's internet allowance. I'll try and write posts on here as often as i can, but that is likely to be only once every few weeks.

I've written a newsletter story for the AIIU September Newsletter that has much more detail (and photos!) about my time in Japan so far. Please have a look at it at http://www.aiiu.com/ (scroll the 'Japan' tab and then click 'Newsletters - "Stories from Japan". The newsletter should be up there by early October.

I hope everything is well in Australia!

トーマス・スィノットより