The first (almost) 3 months.

So when I first found out I was going to Japan I said to myself, "I'll write a blog entry each week to summarise everything I've done."
.... Well obviously I didn't do that. But hey, better late than never right? I don't even write in my journal everyday like I wanted to but I at least try to get the important things in.

Anyway, lets get on with this blog thing.

The first 10 days of my being in Japan were spent in Tokyo. I stayed with a host family while I was there, they were absolutely lovely and they really did make me feel welcome.

The first day I arrived was after an 11.5 hour flight from Heathrow. It was pretty early Japan time but at home it was nearing 11pm. I'll tell you now, the first day was busy and I was horrifically tired. I think all in all by the time I went to bed I had been awake for around 26 hours. It was rough and I might have cried a little.

The next 9 days were great though. After day one there wasn't much chance of me finding anything else too tough. Every day was very full though, we had Japanese language lessons, lessons about culture, briefs and debriefs and also some sightseeing in between.

I arrived at my project in Yamaguchi on the 12th of September.

On the first day we started off easy with some tomato picking and I received a run down on my duties before we went to Hikari-san's home for dinner. Her family were very kind to me and told me straight off that their home was now also my home. At 8 o'clock they went to pray to their God and I was asked to join. I'll tell you, I'd been to church more that week than in the past 5 years!

Okay so like, I had little-to-no knowledge of Japanese before I arrived here, just some basic words and I knew some of the characters, however, after the two months I find myself being able to understand some of the things that people say to me (even if I can’t form a reply.) My hosts have been teaching me some of the Yamaguchi dialect too which has been very fun.

I’ve really enjoyed my time here so far, even if there have been a few moments where I’ve felt quite homesick, weirdly I find it’s very small things that make me miss home; things like seeing my hosts family interacting together- which makes me miss my own or seeing a video or photo of my friends from home. However, it’s been easily cured by a chat with my mum and some self-motivation in the form of stern conversations with the mirror.

I’ve also noticed some differences between here and home, sometimes there’s been a little bit of culture clash in the form of misunderstandings (but not very often thankfully). I think for me the biggest shock has been the lack of central heating, it might be colder back in Scotland but we have radiators to keep us warm, luckily I brought a lot of jumpers with me!
…Okay so that’s a little bit of a lie, I actually think the weirdest thing for me was when we went to the Fukuoka prefecture and we ate whale. This was quite a big shock as whale fishing is banned in Europe, it did actually taste quite nice though.

I think my favourite thing in Japan so far (apart from going to Harajuku street) was getting to try on a Kimono. Hikari-san’s mother is training to be a Kimono teacher so the two of us were able to try them on before we went around the Kyoto exhibition in Yamaguchi City. I’ve been invited to lots of things these past couple of months such as a Scrabble club, a day out to the Fukuoka prefecture with the village and a trip to some of the local schools with a group of Indonesian students that came to stay with us.

We also held a Halloween event at the share house where we played some traditional games and carved a pumpkin together which was a lot of fun.

And here are some more of my favourite pictures because I feel like showing them off. I'm tired and I'll (possibly) add descriptions or whatever another day.