School Supplies

This morning my host mom and I woke up early and headed off to my school so that we could get the necessary items I will need.

Getting there was an adventure in and of itself.

Funny enough, the trains were the easy part.

My train ride is about 10-15 minutes, and I live pretty close to the train station here in my city so I don't have to worry about that so much.

Depending on which of the two types I take I may only have to change trains either once or not at all which is really freakin awesome.

Then comes the slightly more tiring part.

Although the only thing I have to do is walk, and it's pretty much a straight shot to the school once I leave the station, it's up a hill and takes about 20 or 30 minutes to get there. I'm a bit worried since I don't know really about the way to get there since there are a few streets I have to cross but apparently I will see a lot of girls with my uniform so I can just follow them. We'll see how it goes.

Oh and actually school for me starts Thursday.

I have to make my self introduction in front of the whole high school. Once on Thursday in front of the 11th and 12th years, and then a second time on Friday during the Entrance Ceremony. I also have to introduce myself to my teachers. Oh and I'm going to be a 10th grader here, did I mention?

My school has hosted before and this year there will be a three of us total. There is a girl from Canada here right now and then when she leaves a girl from the US will be here. It's really cool too. We even have an "Exchange Student Room." I love it. There are messages written there in the small lockers and on the board. Recently a girl who was here a few years ago came and visited and left a message on the chalkboard. I really hope I have as great a time as the girls who were here before me did :)

Today I recieved my uniform (which we went to the Exchange Student Room for fitting) and everyone made a big fuss over it (I heard the word "cute" thrown around more times in 10 minutes than I've ever been used to). They also gave me two pairs of shoes. The ones I use to go to school and then the shoes I change into and wear in the school throughout the day. Along with that I was given my school bag and a charm of the school's mascot which is absolutely adorable. The shoes bag and charm are all mine to keep which I most definitely will ;)

Tomorrow I Skype with my parents and enjoy my last free day before Japanese school begins!

And so I leave you with some pictures as promised :)

**Betania

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In Kyoto these were outside of a lot of the shops there. A string of five of them means they are welcoming customers to come into their shop.


Candy bento box! So cute! This little shop also had a sushi one, along with little sweets and cookies. My host mom got me some candies as a gift. I haven't eaten them yet though x)

Sakura! They were freakin EVERYWHERE. Many of the trees hadn't bloomed yet though which was a bit sad but the ones that had were so pretty! I took tons of pictures. Some were light pink and most white. But I didn't see any darker pink ones.

This was a smaller temple near Kiomizu. At this temple people who wanted to get married or have a lover or a boyfriend/girlfriend would come to make wishes. You could also buy charms that would advance your love life or that might hopefully give you a safe delivery of your child.

Fake Maiko-san :'(

Apparently (although it's not very surprising if you think about it) you can pay a certain amount of money (of the "If-You-Have-to-Ask-Me,-You-Probably-Can't-Afford-It" sort) and become a Maiko for a day.

Kiomizu Temple. It was so beautiful there. There were lots of different little places to pray and makes wishes. We couldn't really take pictures inside though which was disappointing.

For our Osaka Tour we passed by this bridge (I guess this is a really famous spot) and we took a picture with this Glico running man. We were having so much fun and posed like he was. I'm so glad we did otherwise I would have regretted not doing it I think ;)